Gary Payton: Overpowers Hakeem and the Rockets (1996 WCSF Game 1, 28 Points)

www.basketball-reference.com/b...

[@marzilyas]

damn this crowd is amazingly loud. those seattle fans really were awesome.

[@shyboyfso]

Happy 50th Birthday GP !

[@davidca96]

The Glove at his best, nailing 3's getting crazy steals, he was such a great player.

[@lordextravagant420]

Smoking GP watching GP highlights 💪🏽💯

[@TheShytownCubs]

I miss this team GP, Reignman, Detleff, and the boys what a great team

[@morecowbell235]

Overpower Hakeem my ass. GP would abuse Kenny and Sam and whomever else Houston put at PG, but he ain't overpowering #34

[@tj5180]

U think if the rockets had Vernon Maxwell who quit on the 1995 rockets would've helped in 1996. They also had no power forward and Perkins was stretch 5

[@jasonc.7877]

gotta say it, hannah storm could get it in 96

[@gc4479]

GP‼️

[@hectorlopez1069]

Rockets were done in this series to the sonics. They were lost in this one.

[@RedWarrior081]

the Rockets when they were the defending NBA champions for two straight years have sucessfully eluded the Sonics but in '96 they were finally caught were swept and got dethroned on the spot lmao

[@deandrewyatt639]

That’s why the Rockets traded for Barkley to beat the Sonics,but then they couldn’t beat the Jazz

[@ChrisM07]

They didn't really need Barkley if they had just gotten Kevin Willis in free agency that would've been enough because he was similar to Thorpe where he was a very good defensive player and didn't always need to have the ball to be effective offensively. Barkley wanted to play there so Rudy decided to get him too. Barkley's presence was effective against the Sonics because of his rebounding while it was a different story with the Jazz because he struggled guarding the pick and roll.

[@rottdawg5838]

I was a huge Sonics fan back then but I think Hakeem wasn't 100% in this series, he just didn't seem himself

[@ChrisM07]

The real problem was the Rockets were playing the uptempo style with Drexler which benefitted the Sonics who also played at that pace. The Rockets PF achilles heel also showed.

[@FuShengAlex]

Seattle's best players Kemp and Payton were younger and more athletic than Hakeem and Clyde whose athletic abilities were starting to wane. Plus they finally had a 3 pt shooter with Hawkins who was a better fit than Kendall Gill they traded. Speaking of the 3. This was the first year Payton could hit the 3 pt shot consistently which took his game to a new level.

[@ChrisM07]

@@FuShengAlex Dream definitely wasn't the same dominant player at this point he didn't have a ws ranking in the top 15 for a full season after the Rockets championship run.

[@raurmanproductions3438]

@@FuShengAlex Hawkins, Payton, Schrempf, Perkins could all hit threes consistently. They were a a trapping-guard Stretch-Forward Built team for the modern era.

[@FuShengAlex]

@RAURMAN productions yes they had all those guys but I think if they hadn't traded Gill for Hawkins they wouldn't have went to the Finals in 96. Gill was athletic but I think he was a bad fit in the backcourt for the Sonics because his 3 pt jumpshot was non existent. Hawkins added another dimension.

[@hectorlopez1069]

Olajuwon had big problems with those sonics. He wouldn't beat them at all.

[@mariobryant8803]

A loud crowd

[@pickzkickz]

No one overpowers Dream...his weak teammates is a different story. Dream had 49 and 25 added 6 blocks in Game 7 in Seattle. Dream does the overpowering, always.

[@gyelamagneechavez]

They were still intack way back then. They just couldn't handle GP and the rest of sonic team

[@hectorlopez1069]

Rockets couldn't get pass the sonics in the 90s. The one team that were tough on the rockets.

[@noname9360]

Rockets got lucky that they didn't played them in 1994 and 1995 rockets would've not made the finals .sonics always had the rockets number and I'm a rockets fan saying this btw

[@ChrisM07]

​@@noname9360 The Sonics actually were beatable when the Rockets had Thorpe as the PF. As a matter of fact the season Rockets won their 1st championship the Sonics had their lowest TS% and eFG% against them out of all the teams in the regular season series, in the 96 regular season series w/o Thorpe the Sonics had their best eFG% and TS% against them so obviously what happened in the playoffs wasn't that surprising.

[@hakeemolajuwon4352]

Illegal defense all night long

[@raurmanproductions3438]

lol, stop...The Sonics had their number and swept them.

[@hakeemolajuwon4352]

@@raurmanproductions3438 with illegal defense

[@hectorlopez1069]

Olajuwon had 6 points. The worst game of his life. What a horrible game by Olajuwon.

[@3411Chad]

Says some complete nobody lol