The West was incredibly tough that year. Houston, Seattle, Phoenix, San Antonio, and Utah were all legitimate contenders. Houston went through a gauntlet of great teams to win the championship in 1995.
This is exactly what I loved about the western conference in the 1990s. You had first round matchups that could’ve easily been Western Conference finals. There were often multiple 50+ win teams clashing every year. Great times to be an nba fan! In the east, it was just MJ in the Bulls, and then a few ankle biters like the Knicks, Pacers and Magic.
@@2008sALINAsYup. 1993 was the Rockets best team and the NBA made sure Rockets weren’t gonna make the Finals caused they wanted a Barkley Jordan finals!
Jazz led 2-1 in this 1st rd best of 5 before losing the next two including this do or die. Another disappointing playoffs for Utah after a very good regular season. They had many of these disappointing runs in the post season. As a Jazz fan, looking back it does disappoint me still. Karl forever.
@@chrisuncleahmad I know that, it was more about who ultimately would've come outta the west and how differently Orlando may have performed in the Finals against someone other than Houston.
More than likely, the Jazz would have beat the Suns, since they were demoralized after losing Manning. After that, the Jazz would have beat the Spurs in the WCF. We all know what Karl Malone did to David Robinson during the 90s. The Magic were an immature team, and they were already celebrating before playing in the Finals. Penny Hardaway and Nick Anderson were going on shopping sprees. Shaq was making an album, and Dennis Scott was riding his motorcycle around Orlando.
@@coreyrowe4119 I doubt the Magic wins regardless, they actually had a losing road record that season (18-23) having hca in the finals was probably their best chance at winning.
Jazz probably beat Orlando and win only title of that era if they had beat Houston, they were never gonna beat Jordan in 97 and 98 but ateast they would have 1 title.
He moved his pivot. The nba actually called travels in the 90s by the book. They call almost nothing today. Another reason it’s so much easier to score.
You know folks, I love the cast and crew (roster players of these 2 teams with great superstars of Malone, Olajuwon, Stockton, Kenny Smith, and Horry...) from the mid-80s and the rest of the best of the 90s NBA basketball 🏀. U can't compare these NBA eras style of basketball to current NBA now with full of shit 3 pointers. This Houston Rockets team are so formidable that even the mighty Chicago Bulls (without Rodman, Horace Grant and other big men) cant defeat the Rockets during this season. But 1 thing is, Utah Jazz keeps on coming back for the championships and unfortunately, never had one.
