ROCKETS NOTES

Three Rockets scored in double figures Thursday in Game 3. Two were the famous Scottie Pippen and Charles Barkley, who had 37 and 30, respectively. The third was their oft-injured backup point guard, Brent Price, who came off the bench to score 10 points with seven assists and two steals in 32 minutes.

Price is fast becoming the de facto No. 1 point guard, although Coach Rudy Tomjanovich may continue starting rookie Cuttino Mobley.

“Brent did great,” Pippen said. “That’s something he’s been doing for us the whole season.

“You almost hate to see him do it because he comes away with injuries and things [so often]. Right now, we can’t afford to lose him. He plays hard-nosed basketball. . . . He gives us so much energy and spark off the ball.”

Price’s piece de resistance was diving on Shaquille O’Neal and trying to wrestle the ball away from him, resulting in a jump ball (which the little guy lost).

“David and Goliath,” suggested Price Friday. “Made for a funny looking picture, didn’t it?

“I noticed they made an adjustment. Derek Fisher [whom Price was guarding] quit bringing the ball up the court. They let Kobe Bryant bring the ball up the court. That told me they were pretty much aware that I was harassing them a little bit. I took that as respect and a compliment. They changed their game plan somewhat, just to try to take me out of it defensively.

“Obviously, when they were working their game plan 100% in the first two games, they were killing us. They had the inside-outside game going. They were very comfortable.”

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Price, on the impact of Game 3: “Any time you get a win like that, it lifts your spirits, it gives you more confidence. . . . No matter what anyone says, it helps you believe more. We believe now that we can beat this team and we can advance to the next series. We know it’s not going to be easy.

“Before that, you’re looking and you’re saying, ‘Man, we got to win three, I don’t know if we can win three in a row, we just haven’t been playing well.’

“But then you go out and have those kinds of performances and you get your crowd behind you and all of a sudden, L.A.’s doubting a little bit. They don’t want this thing to go back to L.A.”

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Pippen says he’s sorry he didn’t start posting Bryant up sooner in the series, rather than letting the smaller, quicker Kobe harass him away from the basket.

The Rockets expect the Lakers to come up with something to help Bryant in the post. One solution could be to double-team. Another could be to switch the bigger Glen Rice onto Pippen.

“Glen is a pretty fair defender,” Pippen said. “I think me posting probably works more to his advantage because he does have the size and the strength to fight in the post, but it really opens my outside game up because I can push the ball up and look for my outside shot, look for screen-and-roll opportunities which, I think, he doesn’t defend well.”