Every NBA team’s greatest playoff moment

Houston Rockets: The Dream’s block (1994 NBA Finals, Game 6)

The Houston Rockets in the early 1990s were clearly on the precipice of doing exceptional things, but they’d yet to get over the hump. Then, in a combination of great timing and just being ready to seize the moment regardless of that, things all fell in their favor. Michael Jordan retired from the NBA to go play baseball and the Rockets took the leap to the next level. As such, Hakeem Olajuwon and company found themselves up against the New York Knicks in the 1994 NBA Finals.

That Finals series was phenomenal in itself. The Rockets and Knicks traded wins through the first four games before New York held serve at Madison Square Garden in Game 5 to put Houston in an elimination game at home for Game 6. Of course, that wasn’t the end of the road for the Rockets in the slightest.

Up by two points in the waning moments of the game, the Rockets needed a stop to stay alive and force a Game 7 without overtime. To that point, Knicks guard John Starks had beasted Houston throughout the matchup. In Game 6, he’d totaled 27 points and eight assists to lead the way in a low-scoring game. To try and force overtime, he went to the rack to try and push his scoring total to 29.

Rather than that happening, though, Olajuwon timed his defense perfectly as he thwarted Starks’ attempt with a game-wining block to even the series and force a winner-take-all matchup back in New York. The Rockets would win and take all in that decisive Game 7, but that and their 1994 championship wouldn’t have happened without The Dream being their superstar and sealing the Game 6 win.