Talk builds over Warriors showdown, but handling regular season comes first

It’s hard not to get excited about what’s coming.

If everything falls into place, the Rockets and Golden State Warriors will meet in a little more than two months in the Western Conference finals.

It’s what the fans want, what the league wants, what the players want.

So the hype, the nonstop chatter, the arguments and the banter all make sense. But, it’s March. Barely. The playoffs are five weeks away, and even though the Rockets are making it look easy during this 15-game winning streak, nothing in the NBA is guaranteed.

“We can’t really look too far ahead,” coach Mike D’Antoni said.

Even though the rest of the basketball world seems to be, the Rockets are focused on the now, starting with back-to-back games at Oklahoma City and

Milwaukee.

At this point, focusing on every game — more specifically on every win — is the way to go.

It’s no secret that beating the Warriors in the Western Conference finals is an important goal.

General manager Daryl Morey has been open about building a team to beat the three-time Western Conference champs since free agency last year. To achieve it, though, the Rockets must accomplish other tasks along the way.

The Rockets (49-13) are in position to finish with the No. 1 seed in the West.

“We talk about it a lot,” Eric Gordon said. “We want that top seed. We want to have homecourt advantage. We know what a difference that can make for us.”

To earn it, they have to keep winning. The Warriors might have had hiccups this season, but they aren’t just going to back down and let the Rockets take over. They are only half a game behind.

The Rockets are smart enough to ignore the noise — and there’s plenty of it — coming from the Bay Area.

Airwaves are abuzz

From sports talk radio hosts in the Bay Area insisting the Rockets won’t make it to the conference finals to Draymond Green saying “we’ll see y’all soon” in reference to the Rockets being “built to beat” the Warriors to a few strategically placed comments aimed at James Harden by Golden State coach Steve Kerr, there are plenty of people that clearly have the conference finals in mind.

D’Antoni said that with the tough schedule and how busy the Rockets have been, he’s found it easy to ignore the chatter and stay on top of the task at hand.

“I listen to music instead,” he said jokingly Monday morning.

Truthfully, though, it’s no surprise the Rockets aren’t getting ahead of themselves.

This team isn’t just built to beat the Warriors, it’s built to be smarter and more poised than it has been in the past. There’s veteran leadership to spare.

“They’ve been there,” Harden said. “The vets have played on good teams, on bad teams, so they get it.

“We don’t get caught up in the postseason. Nobody knows who is going to play who or what the seedings are going to be.”

The Rockets can’t control what any other team does. They can control what they do.

They aren’t invincible. The injuries have been constant all season and the Rockets head into Oklahoma without Joe Johnson (illness,) Ryan Anderson (hip) and Brandan Wright (knee.).

Variables galore

“Anything can happen,” Gordon said. “So you can’t just assume you know what the playoffs are going to be.

“The best thing we can do is try to win now and put ourselves in the right position.”

Gordon said it’s been easy to ignore all of the Warriors’ talk.

“We are pretty focused on ourselves,” he said. “We know what we want to do.”

At the end of the day, yes, the Rockets want to take down the Warriors, win the Western Conference title and compete in the NBA Finals.

But making that the focus of the regular season with over a month to play isn’t in their best interests.

Thinking about beating the Warriors in a seven-game series in May won’t help the Rockets pick up a win in Oklahoma City on Tuesday night.

“It’s all about the next team up,” Harden said. “That’s all we think about. That’s all we are going to think about.”

If the Rockets can keep doing that, they’ll likely make it to the Western Conference finals and give everyone what they want after all.