But even after Houston tied the game, the Lakers tried to take the final shot and win with a last-second hoop. Laker Byron Scott missed a long jumper and Houston--which had been out-rebounded nearly two to one--retrieved the ball and called time.
With Olajuwon out of the game, the logical choice was Sampson on some alley-oop sort of play.
But Sampson was guarded by Jabbar from behind. The only other choice was Sampson on an ugly, off-balance sort of play.
"There was a man guarding him him from behind and a man guarding him in front and he only had one second to get the shot off, so it wasn't real pretty," Fitch said.
For that breathless moment, some of basketball's greatest players watched the ball bounce around the rim and it didn't matter how the ball had gotten to the basket--only whether or not it would go in.
And, when the clock stopped, Fate had sided with bad basketball.