Warriors, Rockets follow script to clash
OAKLAND – Sixteen days before the NBA landscape was changed by the trade that sent Chris Paul from the Clippers to Houston, the Rockets general manager made it clear they were coming for the champs.
“They are not unbeatable,” Houston’s Daryl Morey told ESPN last June. “There have been bigger upsets in sports history. We are going to keep improving our roster. ... We are used to long odds. If Golden State makes the odds longer, we might up our risk profile and get even more aggressive. We have something up our sleeve.”
As the Warriors’ Draymond Green would later tell GQ magazine, he copied and pasted Morey’s words into a Golden State group chat.
And now, with both teams having stayed on script by advancing to the
Western Conference finals, this story line comes full circle.
Much has changed since then, of course. The Rockets survived significant injuries to Paul and others to take the top seed in the West. The Warriors were mediocre by their standards, finishing second in the conference while spending nearly six weeks without twotime MVP Stephen Curry down the stretch before his recent return.
Yet this much remains the same: Green won’t be showing much respect for the Rockets’ anti-Warriors strategy anytime soon.
“They have made it known that their team is built to beat us; (it’s) their obsession or whatever you want to call it,” said Green, who is averaging 13.1 points, 11.5 rebounds and nine assists in the playoffs.
“I mean, it is what it is. But like I said before, all that stuff is cool. You can build your team (that way).
“Obviously you want to build your team to beat the defending champs, because that’s usually how you’ve got to go to get a championship, the way you’ve got to go. All understandable. That stuff has been said for about a year now. It’s time to play.”
By comparison, this was the mild version of Green’s view.
Yet for the sake of perspective on what should be a fantastic faceoff starting Monday, it’s worth remembering the R-rated edition he shared for the GQ story that ran in October. Green’s comments came just days before the Rockets landed Paul:
“What the (expletive) are you talking about?” he said. “They are really trying to rethink their whole strategy” – here he bumps a table repeatedly with his hand for emphasis, getting excited –“because teams know they don’t have a (expletive) clue.”
When it comes to Green and how he sees these Rockets, that interview revealed the raw truth. The only question now is whether the words of Green or Morey will prove the wiser.
“Man, we won two championships in three years,” Green said Tuesday evening. “We’re not about to run off talking about how bad we want to play somebody. We want to win another championship, and it don’t matter who is in the way of that.
“If (you’re) in the way of that, then you happen to be in the way. ... However, we got them. All right, now let’s get it. Let’s get to it now.”