Rockets Rise Again Against the Clippers : Game 3: Houston regains lead in series, 2-1, after 111-99 victory. Olajuwon has 32 points.

The notion of a Clipper playoff home-court advantage was not merely dismissed by the Houston Rockets on Monday night but knocked halfway back to Texas, not simply buried but lost in an avalanche.

The Clippers got kicked in the momentum, when the Rockets dominated nearly throughout. Houston walked away with a 111-99 victory before 12,628 at the Sports Arena and a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five Western Conference first-round series behind 32 points and 12 rebounds by Hakeem Olajuwon.

Elimination is a loss away for the Clippers, as early as Wednesday’s Game 4 at the Sports Arena. But so is a major recovery, considering that this series has gone from a Rocket rout in Game 1 to the Clippers grabbing the momentum by winning Game 2 to a near repeat of the opener in Game 3.

The Clippers had won nine of their previous 10 games at the Sports Arena, beating Portland, Phoenix and Utah in the process. The only loss, with Danny Manning and John Williams both sidelined by injuries, was a a two-pointer to Seattle.

Then the Rockets swung through, and all that changed.

“That team (the Rockets) played like they had the last 30 or 35 games,” Clipper Coach Larry Brown said. “We played about like we had played all year. One night we play great, the next we won’t be able to sustain it.”

Added Houston’s Otis Thorpe, who finished with 22 points and nine rebounds: “We’re in a position where we had a great season. Now the second season has started. It was 1-1 in this series. We got together and talked about a couple of things and made sure everyone was on the same channel. Tonight, everyone was on the same channel.”

The picture was clear, the sound crisp. The Rockets led by as many as 21 points in the third quarter and never fewer than 12. A surge by the Clippers in the fourth could get that no closer than 11.

The crowd was about 3,000 short of a sellout yet still loud, supplying a standing ovation during pregame introductions and later providing chants more familiar at high school games, but the Clippers had trouble from the start.

The mood was right, but they weren’t, falling into a double-digit hole in the first quarter, 26-16, and soon, 41-29, midway through the second period.

A game after being held to a season-low 83 points, the Rockets had 55 at halftime and a 15-point lead. Their 22 field goals were only one fewer than they had all of Saturday. And, the Midwest Division champions had gone from 62.7% shooting in Game 1 to 31.5% in Game 2 to 56.4% the first half of Game 3, before finishing at 53.7%.

There was also the reappearance of Thorpe, who had five points and three rebounds in 29 minutes when the Clippers broke a 15-game losing streak at the Summit. His follow-up? Seventeen points and seven rebounds in the first half.

For the first time in the series, Manning was not in early foul trouble for the Clippers. But Stanley Roberts was--three in the first half limited him to seven minutes, forcing Brown to opt for a center-by-committee against Olajuwon for extended stretches. Olajuwon got only four shots in 18 minutes in the half, giving him only 11 attempts over a four-quarter stretch that went back to Game 2.

Then, Roberts started the second half . . . and got his fourth foul 16 seconds later. Brown left him in. Barely more than two minutes after that, Roberts got his fifth as Olajuwon drove to the basket. This time Roberts was pulled. He finished with no points in 18 minutes.

From then on, Olajuwon dominated, aside from two misses on the same possession. The breaks helped him but so did matching up one-on-one in the post against Williams. When that happened, Olajuwon spun around for a slam dunk and a 67-53 lead for the Rockets.

“The first half, Otis was very dominant,” Olajuwon said. “I was just trying to position myself with the defense. The second half, Otis was kind of taking a break, so I took over. So we took turns.”

Olajuwon’s third-quarter portion of the relay: 16 points on seven-for-10 shooting and four rebounds. The Rockets had an 88-72 advantage heading into the final period.

The Clippers? They just had a long night.