1995 NBA Finals
The 1995 NBA Finals was the championship round of the 1994–95 National Basketball Association season. The series pitted the Eastern Conference champion Orlando Magic against the defending NBA champion and Western Conference champion Houston Rockets. The pre-series hype and buildup of the Finals was centered on the meeting of the two centers opposing each other: Shaquille O'Neal of the Magic and Hakeem Olajuwon of the Rockets. Going into the series the matchup was compared to the Bill Russell-Wilt Chamberlain matchup of the 1960s.
The Rockets became the first team in NBA history to beat four 50-win teams in a single postseason en route to the championship. The Rockets would win a playoff-record nine road games in the 1995 playoffs. It was the second NBA Finals sweep in the 2–3–2 Finals format. The Rockets also became the first repeat NBA Champion in history to keep the title with a sweep. In addition, the Rockets became the first team in NBA history to win the title without having home-court advantage in any of the four playoff rounds since the playoffs was expanded to a 16 team format in 1984. Coincidentally, this feat would also be achieved by the New Jersey Devils that same year, when they won the Stanley Cup over the Detroit Red Wings.
The Orlando Magic, making their first NBA Finals appearance, began the series at home, hosting the defending champion Houston Rockets. With the Magic up 110–107 late in Game 1, Nick Anderson missed four consecutive free throws in the closing seconds of the game, and Kenny Smith hit a three-pointer, tying the game and sending it to overtime as well as setting a new record with the most three-pointers in an NBA Finals game with seven. The more experienced Rockets went on to win in overtime and eventually swept the Magic, winning their second consecutive NBA Championship. In achieving this, they earned the distinction of being the only team to win both championships during Michael Jordan's first retirement, in addition to being the only team other than the Chicago Bulls to win multiple championships in the 1990s.
The season-ending documentary Double Clutch by Hal Douglas, was released by NBA Entertainment to coincide with the Rockets' championship season.
Background
Houston Rockets
The Rockets entered the 1994–95 season as defending champions. They have won the first eight games of the season, the first defending champions to have won their first eight games of their season since the 1987-88 Lakers. However, they struggled to maintain last season's form due to injuries and off-court-distractions. On February 14, the Rockets acquired Clyde Drexler from the Portland Trail Blazers, but the trade of a hometown hero did not improve matters, and the Rockets settled for the sixth seed with a 47–35 record.However, Houston once again lived up to its Clutch City reputation come playoff time. En route to the Finals, the Rockets defeated three teams with 55 or more victories. They began by ousting the Utah Jazz in five games, then repeating last season's comeback effort over the Phoenix Suns. In Game 7 of that series, Phoenix led Houston 51-42 after the first half before Houston mounted a comeback to get the series win, 115-114. After dispatching the Suns, the Rockets outclassed the top-seeded San Antonio Spurs in six games of the conference finals. They also became the first team in NBA History to have lost all their home games of the series but won all road games of that certain series thus advancing to the next round.
Orlando Magic
The Magic were only in their sixth season of existence, but they were a team on the rise. Led by All-Stars Shaquille O'Neal and Penny Hardaway, new acquisition Horace Grant, and franchise cornerstones Nick Anderson and Dennis Scott, the Magic rolled through the Eastern Conference, winding up with a then-franchise best 57–25 mark.Orlando's road to the Finals began with a convincing 3–1 series win over the Boston Celtics. They followed it up with a six-game ouster of Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls in the second round, and in the conference finals, they vanquished the Indiana Pacers in a tough seven-game series.
Road to the Finals
Regular season series
The Orlando Magic won both games in the regular season series:1995 NBA Finals rosters
Houston Rockets
Orlando Magic
Series summary
This was one of only two NBA Finals in which the team who did not have home court advantage swept the series,.Game 1
hit a then-Finals record seven 3-pointers, the last tying the game up at 110 with 1.6 seconds left following Nick Anderson's four straight missed foul shots. In overtime, Hakeem Olajuwon tips in a missed finger roll by Clyde Drexler with three-tenths of a second left to win the game. Hakeem Olajuwon finished the game with 31 points, 6 rebounds, 7 assists and 4 blocks while Kenny Smith recorded 23 points and 9 assists.Game 2
records a double-double with 34 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Rockets to a 117-106 victory to take a 2-0 series lead. The Magic, on the other hand, becomes the 2nd team in NBA Finals history to lose the first two of their four home games.Game 3
hits a 3-pointer to give Houston a 104-100 lead with 14.1 seconds left.Game 4
At the end of the first half, the Magic had a 4-point advantage of the home team, Rockets. However, the Rockets have another notable comeback as they outscored the Magic 66-50 in the second half, thus winning their second consecutive NBA championship. Olajuwon outscores O'Neal by 10 points and caps off the sweep by hitting a memorable yet uncharacteristic 3-pointer in front of O'Neal.Olajuwon v. O'Neal
Although both centers played well, Olajuwon is generally considered to have outplayed O'Neal. Olajuwon outscored O'Neal in every game of the series and became one of the few players in NBA history to score at least 30 points in every game of an NBA Finals series:| 1995 NBA Finals | Gm 1 | Gm 2 | Gm 3 | Gm 4 | Totals |
| Hakeem Olajuwon | 31 | 34 | 31 | 35 | 32.8 ppg |
| Shaquille O'Neal | 26 | 33 | 28 | 25 | 28.0 ppg |
By winning his second straight NBA Finals MVP award, Hakeem Olajuwon became the sixth player to win the award on multiple occasions, joining Willis Reed, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Michael Jordan. Jordan and Olajuwon at the time were the only players to win the award consecutively.
Player statistics
;Houston Rockets;Orlando Magic
Aftermath
The Rockets' title reign ended in 1996, when they were swept by the Seattle SuperSonics in the second round. The Sonics were also the last team to beat the Rockets in the playoffs prior to their championship run, having eliminated them in the second round in 1993. That year, the Rockets won 48 games and achieved the fourth seed. The following offseason, they acquired former NBA MVP Charles Barkley in a trade, but age and injuries would take its toll and the closest the Rockets would achieve after their two-year championship reign was a six-game loss to the Utah Jazz in the 1997 Western Conference Finals.The Magic won a franchise-record 60 games in the 1995–96 NBA season, but were swept by the Chicago Bulls in the 1996 Eastern Conference Finals. During the offseason, Shaquille O'Neal signed with the Los Angeles Lakers, with whom he went on to win three championships. The Magic would not return to the Finals until 2009, which they lost to the Lakers in five games.