Edition: U.S. / Global

ON PRO BASKETBALL; Riley the Spider, Olajuwon the Fly

By Harvey Araton
Published: June 12, 1994

We have seen the look that was on Hakeem Olajuwon's face late Friday night before. We have seen it on Kenny Anderson's face, on Scottie Pippen's, on Reggie Miller's. It was the look of not being able to get the ball, or not being able to do anything with it. It was the look of exasperation and disbelief. It was the look of a man who is locked out of his car, with the motor running and the tank nearly dry.

One by one, the superstars seem to be playing on fumes in the fourth quarter against the Knicks. Anderson couldn't penetrate. Pippen couldn't be Jordan. Miller, ultimately, couldn't get open. Now Olajuwon can't get around Anthony Mason or over Patrick Ewing.

The Most Valuable Player has played two fourth quarters against the Knicks and scored a grand total of two field goals. In the last 12 minutes of the Knicks' 91-83 Game 2 victory, his teammates clanking jumpers all over the place, Olajuwon managed to take four shots and make one. If he can't do better than that, Pat Riley is going to roll over on his pillow next to a championship trophy within a week and a half.

Whatever perceptions there were about the Houston Rockets, about them being much too talented for Riley's dogged Knicks to drag into the mud, are shattered now, two games into a deadlocked finals. All along it has been fashionable to say the Knicks lack championship talent, but only a fool at this point would question their championship will. And after taking a hard look at Olajuwon's supporting cast, it is time to understand that there never were any teams in these playoffs with Bird, McHale and Parish.

Great players have historically been shut down by great defensive units. I can remember Joe Dumars stalking Michael Jordan, and the Bulls scavenging 74 points in Game 7 of an Eastern Conference final against Detroit as recently as 1990. The amazing thing is not that Olajuwon hasn't cracked the Knicks' fourth-quarter wall. It's that Riley is having his way on both sides.

"No defense can take away everything," Rudy Tomjanovich had said after the Rockets survived a fourth-quarter meltdown in Game 1. "There's always a window, and we've just got to find it."

That window was more of a narrow skylight, and the Rockets' guards are choking on thin air. Riley has stubbornly refused to have his guards drop off Kenny Smith and Vernon Maxwell, and the result has been a rhythmic apocalypse, a total breakdown of the Rockets' 3-point shot machine, as 6 for 22 Friday night readily attests.

"We're not giving them everything that makes them a good team," said Derek Harper, who chewed up Smith's dribble -- and his replacement, the rookie Sam Cassell -- at the point of attack. "Hakeem wants you to double-team him on the post. Then he can pick you apart, and they shoot all those open 3's.

"Riley really chewed us out after Game 1 about not being up in people's faces, and we did a better job. But the big thing is Patrick and Mase being able to handle Hakeem."

It's not total single coverage. When Olajuwon has gotten the ball on the low post, the weak-side forward has cheated toward Olajuwon, which puts him on notice that should he drive, he will be double-teamed. The result has been a strangely tentative Olajuwon, at times faking and faking until he has deked himself to helplessness.

Those openings Tomjanovich spoke of have been at the forward spots, but superior interior passing is required to fully exploit them. Robert Horry, Otis Thorpe and Matt Bullard can pretty much unload from the perimeter any time they want. Go win a championship with that.

The Dream's worst nightmare has been Mason being allowed by the officials to administer him free chiropractic treatment. Mason's armored upper body has pushed Olajuwon into being a jump shooter. His minutes allowed Ewing to serve as the lane intimidator, stay out of foul trouble and keep fresh for a battered Olajuwon down the stretch.

Olajuwon was clearly tired late in Game 2, and out of sync. With the Rockets trailing, 84-81, he had the ball in deep on the right side. Ewing poked it away, but Olajuwon regained control and seemed to be in uncontested position to score. Instead of dunking, he barely left his feet for a layup. Ewing blocked him from behind. The Knicks hurried downcourt. Harper buried his fourth 3-pointer. Not since Brian Leetch hit the crossbar in overtime of Game 1, Rangers-Canucks, has a game been decided on one such dramatic turn.

Olajuwon's postgame face suggested that he was plenty steamed, though he declined to elaborate for fear of being "misunderstood." There was already enough of that going around. Horry and Cassell exchanged words on the floor. Maxwell's teammates were furious with him for taking, much less missing, a reckless 3-pointer from way out, just after they had rallied for a 79-76 lead on, ironically, a drive and free throw by Maxwell. Mario Elie, meanwhile, fingered Smith as the main culprit, saying, "He needs to be more aggressive."

So does Olajuwon, who needs to attack his man first, think about it later. Otherwise, Knick defense rules. Otherwise, Riley adds another superstar's head to the wall of his den, all of them with the same stunned look.

Photos: The Rockets' Vernon Maxwell, who was contained himself, wasn't able to contain the Knicks' John Starks. (F. Carter Smith for The New York Times); Rudy Tomjanovich (G. Paul Burnett/The New York Times)