Pippen, Barkley Bring the Pain

What, them worry?

What was the big deal if the Rockets were down, 2-0 . . . and Scottie Pippen was being referred to in the hometown press as the Phantom Menace . . . and Hakeem Olajuwon was playing a few minutes here and there between fouls . . . and Coach Rudy Tomjanovich was so desperate, he put Charles Barkley on Shaquille O’Neal, gambling that O’Neal wouldn’t step on him?

After all the elimination-game magic the Rockets have worked over the years, you think a few minor problems like that would worry them?

Well, maybe just a little.

“Been in that situation a lot of times,” sighed Tomjanovich afterward. “Sometimes that’s the best thing that can happen. Gets your mind set. You say, we’re backed in a corner.

“I wish it wasn’t like that but it seems to trigger heart and guts and all those cliches.”

For sure, it triggered Scottie Pippen, the local $14 million disappointment, coming off his critical turnover in Game 1, and his 0-for-7 shooting in Game 2, after which the Rockets’ press corps started in on him, in earnest.

“Well,” Pippen said, “I forced myself to feel good. I knew I had to come out aggressive. . . . I knew I had to lay it on the line.”

“I don’t feel I have anything to prove. You guys [reporters] have been giving me this bull my whole career. You know what kind of numbers I have. You know what I’ve accomplished. When I have a down game, it’s not the end of my career.”

For sure, this is Barkley’s team and Barkley’s town, and Pippen has had a hard time figuring out where he fits in. Thursday night, however, he got an emergency field promotion to No. 2 option, when Olajuwon went to the bench with four minutes gone in the game, in his usual foul trouble.

After that, it was simpler for Pippen. Whether or not he was making any, he had to keep shooting, so he did.

Along the way, he figured out a way to get back at Kobe Bryant, who had been pressuring him out on the floor and bothering him. It’s uncommon for Pippen, even at 33, not to be the quicker player in any of his matchups, but he isn’t in this one.

“He’s very quick and small,” said Pippen before the game. “He makes me work to bring the ball upcourt--after I’m chasing Glen Rice at the other end so they make me expend a lot of energy . . .

“Rice is resting, guarding other guys and Kobe comes and meets me, soon as I get the ball and makes me work to bring it up. Now I got to chase and try and find Rice. They’re making me work so, with me carrying a lot of minutes, it tends to take its toll on me.”

Thursday, Pippen started posting up, where his size and strength give him the advantage. Bryant got two quick fouls, Pippen kept pounding on him and finally, the shots began to fall.

“Tonight I just gave the ball up to one of the guards,” said Pippen, “and positioned myself down in the post. I got early fouls on him. He was just at my mercy from that point on.”

Not that it was easy.

When Olajuwon got into foul trouble again in the third quarter, Tomjanovich had to put Barkley, who comes up to about to O’Neal’s neck, on him.

O’Neal finished with 26 points, shooting nine for 22 with Olajuwon going only 28 of the minutes. The rest of the time, O’Neal was guarded by Barkley, Antoine Carr and Stanley Roberts. Make that a big edge to the Rockets.

“It’s tiring, man,” said Barkley. “That big . . . is heavy . . .

“One thing Hakeem has got to do better, sometimes he just has to let him score because he can’t help us sitting on the bench.”

This was Pippen and Barkley’s present to the Dream, then. Pippen went 48 minutes, scoring 37 points with 13 rebounds. Barkley went 43, scoring 30 points with 23 rebounds.

The Rockets won another elimination game and live to fight another day.

“They’re a talented basketball team,” said Laker Coach Kurt Rambis. “If we thought we were going to waltz through this thing and win three straight, we were kidding ourselves and you guys.”

Another elimination game looms. If the Lakers thought they came ready Thursday, they better come readier Saturday.