Cassell Has a Healthy View of Adversity

Kenny Smith and the Clippers’ Sam Cassell were teammates on the Houston Rockets’ teams that won championships in 1994 and ’95. Smith, at home in Valencia on Sunday before heading to Atlanta to work on TNT’s NBA studio show tonight, said it takes a lot to rattle Cassell.

Smith remembered Houston’s Game 7 against the Phoenix Suns in the 1994 Western Conference semifinals.

“Clyde Drexler comes down with the flu and before the game is walking around with intravenous needles in both arms, pushing an IV pole,” Smith said. “He looked like someone you’d see on ‘ER.’ I’m thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, Clyde may not play.’

“Sam comes by and says, ‘Hey, this gives us a chance to play together more and shine.’ He was almost happy about it.

“I guess the moral of the story is if for some reason Elton Brand is not playing [tonight], Sam Cassell will find a silver lining.”

Drexler did play in that Game 7 in ’94 but wasn’t a factor. Cassell, then a rookie, scored 22 and helped the Rockets win, 104-94.

Trivia time: Whom did the Rockets defeat in the ’94 NBA Finals, and in how many games?

The road can be your friend: In the 1995 Western Conference finals, the Rockets won the first two games at San Antonio, then lost two at home. Smith recalls that before Game 5 at San Antonio he told the team after it had landed, “It’s good to be back home in San Antonio.”

The Rockets won that game and then Game 6 at Houston to advance to the NBA Finals, where they swept Orlando.

A Chicago first: That was quite a brawl Saturday in Chicago, triggered by Cubs catcher Michael Barrett, who threw a punch after being run over by A.J. Pierzynski of the White Sox.

“This city has had fights before,” Mike Downey wrote Sunday in the Chicago Tribune. “It has had South Side vs. North Side gangland hits. It has had baseball brawls. It has had teammates slugging teammates....

“Never before, though, has a Cub ever taken it upon himself to sock a Sox in the chops.”

Strange bedfellows: Interleague play created many natural matchups in baseball over the weekend -- Angels vs. Dodgers, San Francisco Giants vs. Oakland Athletics, White Sox vs. Cubs, New York Yankees vs. New York Mets, Washington Nationals vs. Baltimore Orioles.

Then there were the Toronto Blue Jays and Colorado Rockies. They’re sort of like high school kids who can’t get a date for the prom, so they go with each other.

Looking back: On this day in 1997, the Chicago Bulls beat the Miami Heat, 75-68, in what was then the lowest-scoring playoff game in NBA history since the shot clock was introduced during the 1954-55 season. Since then, the lowest-scoring NBA playoff game is a 66-64 Boston victory over Detroit in 2002.

Trivia answer: The New York Knicks in seven games.

And finally: Before Cleveland was eliminated by the Detroit Pistons in Game 7 Sunday, Cavaliers Coach Mike Brown was asked by Fox Sports radio’s James Washington to name his All-NBA first team. Said Brown: “LeBron James, Bron Bron, Big Bron, Little Bron, and L.J.”

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Larry Stewart can be reached at larry.stewart@latimes.com.