NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award
The teams met in their first major clash with each other in the 1994 NBA Playoffs. Olajuwon was widely considered not only the best post player in the league during an era of great centers, but ever since Michael Jordan's first retirement from the NBA, the best player in the league, winning both the NBA Most Valuable Player Award and his second consecutive NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award for the 1993–94 season. Along with Otis Thorpe, Kenny Smith, Vernon Maxwell, Robert Horry, Mario Elie, and Sam Cassell, the Rockets proved to be a force in the Western Conference. They won the Midwest Division Title with a record of 58–24. As the second seed in the Western Conference, they ousted the Clyde Drexler-led Blazers three games to one, but had trouble with Charles Barkley's Suns, who won the first two games in Houston. The Rockets won the series, four games to three.