The Rockets owned the Warriors 3-1 during the regular season, but the Warriors the world witnessed in the playoffs felt like a completely different team to the one we faced. A healthy Bogut and Harrison Barnes transformed that team into something fierce, they were playing top notch defense and raining 3's like.. well.. the Rockets. Their disposal of the 57 wins Denver Nuggets (a team many Rockets fans dreaded as a possible 1st round match-up) was nothing short of impressive, and they were far from push-overs against the 58 wins Spurs. It would be wrong for any Rockets fan to dismiss the Warriors as worthy rivals just because we owned them last season. HERE is a reminder of the intense rivalry we had last season, and a little snippet from that article: Parsons thinks the Warriors were lucky, but I think NBA fans in general were unlucky that they didn't get to see a Warriors-Rockets series which would have been intensely entertaining. It might sound strange, but as a Rockets fan I'm happy the Warriors got Iguodala--arguably the best Harden-stopper in the league. Without that acquisition, the Warriors wouldn't stand a chance against the new Rockets this season. Some Rockets fans might think the Warriors still don't stand a chance even with Iguodala and possibly an improved Barnes, but alot of general NBA fans might not feel the same way: As a Rockets fan, I found the responses to this tweet ridiculous, and I can't wait to see the Rockets prove all the doubters wrong. Don't get me wrong, I think the Warriors will be a very good team, a darkhorse contender, but the Rockets will be better. NBA fans seem to underestimate the Rockets every year, but I don't mind, Rockets will surpass expectations as usual and crush this petty rivalry Warriors fans think they have--and I can't wait to see it happen.
I'm starting to think the Nuggets were just paper tigers. Karl has only coached a team past the first round once in the last decade, he just can't get it together when it matters the most. People were riding the Nuggets hype because of a win streak that relied on a lot of ref help. Warriors took that hype when they beat them.
To answer the question I'll say yes. 2 franchises rising out of the shadow at the same time. Both young and entertaining to watch, sounds like a good rivalry to me.
I hate them more than any other team right now. We stomped them in the regular season and there was definitely some animosity. Admittedly I was envious of their playoff run as a young team; I wanted the Rockets to experience that.
they have the best defender for harden in the western conference.. parsons, lin, beverley matchup pretty evenly with barnes, thompson, and curry.. but they will rain 3s regardless tho so i think these wins are going to come down to how badly omer and dwight can dominate them down low. bogut is no slouch and festus is a good active big, so omer and dwight really have to realize these games are gonna hinge heavily on the bigs matchup.
Yes, there is definitely a rivalry. Like xsatyr said, they're the team I hate the most right now. They are kind of similar to us, a young up-and-coming team. That series next year should be entertaining. If somehow they finish 4th and 5th (don't know who would be no 3 behind the Spurs and the Thunder though) that could be an epic playoff series.
i think warriors will finish with a better record than the rockets...but come on...lets just stop for a second. we know they had a really good playoffs...but we WHOOPED them in the reg. season. yes they added iggy...but we added DWIGHT freaking howard.. come on.
Rockets should be a better team than GS simply because we have more talent. However, head to head, their top defenders(Iggy and Bogut) match up well against our top scorers(Harden and Dwight). We will probably have a better record overall while splitting the season series.
They are irrelevant. I seriously doubt Curry and Bogut can stay healthy. And even if they do, Harden and co. will crush them.
I hope the rivalry continues. Both teams are a lot of fun to watch and their matchups were intense this year.
Rockets are going to DESTROY THEM. random question, is there a website that has all the pics with Dwight posing in his rockets Jersey??
I find GSW to be the most overrated team in the NBA right now. Their point differential last year seems to indicate they were lucky. They essentially traded Landry and Jack for AI, which while an upgrade still meant they lost rotation talent. If I were a betting man, I'd bet the under on their season win totals. I also would predict the Rockets would be at least 5 games better than them in win totals.
GSW will be scraping with low playoff seed. The Rockets will be contending for a championship. There is no rivalry. We are a much better team. We would have been a better team even without Dwight, just due to natural improvement of young players.
Ever since they were fouling the daylights out of us to prevent us from getting the 3point record. I hate the GSW warriors and lost a lot of respect for Mark Jackson.
A rivalry requires a beating on both sides in which no real indication of a winner is present. So far, it's a one sided battle for the Rockets. So how can there be a rivalry? It's more like revenge match up we're talking about here.
I hate how OVERRATED the Warrior suddenly got just because they added Iggy. Iggy. This dude is a good defender but what else does he bring? Nothing. He was the main ball handler for the Nuggets and you think the Warrior will let Curry not get the ball? Warriors lost great bench players that made huge shots for them in Jack and Landry. Suddenly just Iggy is supposed to alleviate this? Iggy ain't no spring chicken and can't shoot spot ups or off the dribble. They probably gonna make a promising player like Harrison Barnes get benched for Iggy's overrated buttocks.
