HOUSTON -- Hall of Famer Hakeem Olajuwon worked with the bigs during Monday’s practice as the Houston Rockets prepared for Game 2 with the Dallas Mavericks.

Olajuwon, who won two titles with the Rockets in the '90s, said he was impressed with the play of rookie center Clint Capela and said veteran center Dwight Howard needs to continue setting the tone defensively.

As for whether or not the Rockets can make a deep playoff run and win a title, Olajuwon is a believer.

“I think the team is very confident and they know they can beat this team,” he said. “The mistakes they made [in Game 1] can be corrected.”

While some of the big men in this series, Josh Smith, Capela and Howard, struggle from the foul line, Olajuwon smiled and said, “As you can see they work on it every day. You just have to be perfect and just shoot it if you work on it every day.”

The Rockets lead their best-of-seven series 1-0 after Saturday’s 118-108 victory. The Rockets received a complete-game effort from James Harden, who scored 24 points and added 11 rebounds. Howard was in foul trouble most of the evening and still blocked five shots, three in the opening quarter, and finished with 11 points and just five rebounds.

Veterans Jason Terry and Corey Brewer responded with a strong Game 1. Terry scored 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting and Brewer came off the bench to score 13 of his 15 points in the decisive fourth quarter.

Josh Smith came off the bench and scored 11 points and grabbed seven rebounds along with two blocks in 25 minutes.

The Rockets' struggles were against the Mavs' zone, where coach Kevin McHale said more spacing and ball movement is necessary. Rebounding was also an issue in Game 1. McHale wasn’t happy the Rockets allowed 14 offensive rebounds, including eight from Tyson Chandler, who had 18 total.

Yet, going up 2-0 in the series will be vital for the Rockets as they look to advance past the first round for only the second time since 1997.

In the first round, NBA teams clinch a best-of-seven series at a 95.2 percent clip after taking a 2-0 series lead. Of all series, NBA teams clinch series 93.9 percent of the time after taking a 2-0 lead.

“We got to protect home court,” Harden said. “Game 1 is over with and we got to focus on Game 2 and what we need to do and some changes that we made and go out there and just execute. Play with a lot of energy and be very passionate about the game and we’ll be all right.”