In a virtual chat accompanying a Facebook showing of the “Clutch City” documentary, former Houston Rockets swingman Mario Elie says he knew the team’s second championship was secure after Orlando dropped the first game of the 1995 NBA Finals at home.
“Once we won that first game in Orlando, it was over,” Elie wrote in the comments section while watching the video on Saturday night.
That Game 1 was particularly traumatic, from a Magic perspective. They led by 20 points early, and by three in the game’s final 10 seconds.
But guard Nick Anderson missed four consecutive free throws, when even making one of them would have likely put the game away. Rockets guard Kenny Smith hit an improbable 3-pointer with just over a second remaining in regulation to tie it, and Houston won in overtime on a tip-in in the final second by NBA Finals MVP Hakeem Olajuwon.
From there, Orlando was never the same. They trailed by 22 points at halftime in a home Game 2, and they lost two of the next three games by double digits in what became a sweep by the Rockets.
The effects of Orlando’s Game 1 collapse lingered well after that series, too. Anderson’s free-throw percentage, which was at 69.6% over the first six seasons of his NBA career (through 1994-95), plunged to 60.5% in his final seven seasons — including a career-low 40.4% in 1996-97.
And just over a year after the 1995 Finals, All-Star center and future MVP Shaquille O’Neal left the Magic to join the Lakers in free agency.
It’s impossible to know with any certainty how things would have played out, had the Magic held on to win Game 1. But that appears to be where Orlando’s downfall began, both in that series and beyond.
