Harden & Co. finally on equal footing with defending champs
The Golden State Warriors aren’t the standard. They are much better than that.
The Warriors’ and Rockets’ ways of doing things are not the way basketball was meant to be played.
James Naismith never imagined a James Harden or a Kevin Durant doing what they can do.
Try as you might, and surely many of you have, if you love good basketball, it is difficult to drum up dislike for the Warriors.
I can provide some silly reasons to work up a dander in their direction, but only those blinded by bias will not recognize and appreciate that this
team is intelligent, entertaining, engaging and just pure fun to watch.
The Rockets are all the above, too, hence the mutual respect between the teams.
Until Draymond Green goes low, bringing his foot unnaturally high into an area no man wants another’s size 13s to be, this series will be a respectful battle of rivals. (And the winner will celebrate an NBA championship a few weeks from now.)
To be exact, these teams aren’t rivals. Not yet.
They will be after this Western Conference final is over.
Despite spending 38 seasons in the same conference — after the Rockets were shifted from East to West in 1980 — the teams had not met in the playoffs before 2015.
This is the third time in four seasons they have played in the playoffs.
But the fan bases know each other better than the teams do.
While the Warriors are essentially the same team they were when they beat the Rockets in the conference finals en route to the 2015 NBA title — with the addition of Durant, a former MVP, that is — the Rockets aren’t even close.
Thanks to Daryl Morey’s continuous deck-shuffling, Harden, Trevor Ariza and Clint Capela are the only three players in the current rotation who were with the Rockets three years ago. And Capela, who might be the key to the team’s chances this time, played a mere seven minutes a game.
Since that series, which Golden State won easily four games to one, the Rockets have changed owners (Tilman Fertitta instead of Les Alexander), coaches (Mike D’Antoni for Kevin McHale) and even uniforms.
In 2015, the Rockets needed to play their best to have a chance. In 2017, the Rockets needed to play their best and have several Warriors get sick to have a chance.
In 2018, if the Rockets play their best, they will win.
Perfection unnecessary
Look, Golden State has no significant flaws, and its minor flaws are more than covered up by major advantages. Still, the Rockets don’t need to be perfect to win this series.
On paper, the Rockets have the better team.
The first two games in Houston are crucial. The Rockets’ quiet confidence has been unshaken throughout the season.
Should they lose games 1 or 2, they certainly have the mettle to go to Oakland and reclaim homecourt advantage. They did that against Utah in the second round, winning two games in Salt Lake City after a split at Toyota Center. The Jazz aren’t in the Warriors’ class.
The Rockets don’t need to be perfect, but they need to be better than they have been. There is plenty of room for improvement.
Careless turnovers — the Rockets don’t commit many but are casually sloppy on occasion — will be more difficult to overcome against Golden State. Defensive lapses that allowed the Jazz so many open looks will be punished more severely by the Warriors.
Chris Paul and Harden’s tag-team game where they have seemingly taken turns having bad games can’t continue.
The Rockets’ chances increase dramatically if Capela takes another step in his growth as a force inside by punishing the Warriors and dominating the glass when they put smaller players on him.
Ariza and P.J. Tucker need to bring defensive toughness, but they can’t disappear offensively as they have so often in the playoffs.
And sixth man Eric Gordon needs to have the hot stretch for which he is overdue.
Though the Warriors are two titles and a seventh-game loss in the NBA Finals into a historic run, they have played a season’s worth of playoff games (72) in the last four years.
That grind will catch up to them at some point.
Understandably, this season drew a relative yawn from the Warriors, who won 58 games, nine games less than they had in any of the previous three years.
They are wide awake now, though, surprisingly, their 3-point shooting has been horrid in the postseason.
It’s anybody’s game
The 65-win Rockets, with the top-rated offense and secondhighest rated defense in the playoffs, have the Warriors’ full attention.
They built that status against Minnesota and Utah, teams that didn’t stand a chance.
The Warriors are so good they could run the Rockets off the court in four or five games.
The Rockets are so good, they could run the Warriors off the court in four or five games.
Predictions that the Rockets-Warriors will last seven games are as much about desire as analysis. This is what we’ve been waiting to see, and we want it to be dramatic.
Sometimes we dig too deep to find the drama. That is why the Warriors are the favorites.
The defending champs are clearly the best team in the NBA. Aside from the Rockets, that is.
So why shouldn’t the Rockets expect to win?
If they do what they have done all season long, they will.
It might even take them seven games to do it.