The Warriors "quietly believe they’d smash the Rockets in the postseason."

Good points. But I don't think their egos will allow them to be happy finishing as second seed. And I don't think Kerr feels so confident he wants to concede home court to the Rockets. And now they have to fight for the 1 seed.

We're tied in losses now and we have the tiebreaker against them. That means, as of tonight's games, the Rockets' destiny is now in their own hands. If we play them even the rest of the season (a tall order I admit) we have the 1 seed and home court throughout the playoffs.

All that made tonight felt big to me.

Tough game against Miami tomorrow. It would be great to go into the all-star break ahead of Golden State/with the best record in the league. And it's not probable that we will but tonight made it seem very possible. Especially considering the recent trend.

The way our team has been playing lately... They're better now than they were when they played GS earlier in the season. They're peaking now while the Warriors are slumping. I'm obsessing over the standings like crazy, like I don't remember doing since the 90s. (I'm bought in in a way I haven't been since the 90s too though I always feel maximally bought in. This team makes me feel like I did when we had Olajuwon.) I do not think the Warriors want to go into the break in second place. We have the power now to put them there.

 

do it quietly because you will be embarrassed if everybody knew about it.

 

They should fear us. We have as many great players as they do, and our best is now better than their best. Our depth and top-level talent are near identical. A series between GSW and HOU will be close as hell.

 

Ima be real. You play the screens and GS sucks. Only Durant can keep you alive after that. If he is off then GS sinks. Their bench is trash too.

Rockets in 6-7 easy.

Rockets beat them twice like that. Played the screens they couldnt hit sh**. They don’t have enough 1 on 1 players.

 

If this isn't taken out of context (did not read), then idk why they are so confident. They were at near full strength when we tagged them, twice. Even without Iggy, Nick Young more than made up for his absence with lights out DT shooting. They shot more effectively than us in both of our wins. Gerald Green wasn't even with us for either and EGo had zero makes from 3-land. CP3 was essentially just Ish Smith in the first meeting. Dubs star 4 shot well in both games. The game they won was without The Beard.

If they're not worried, then they're just dull.

 

Beating Rockets is the only thing Warriors think about.

 

More and more I watch this I wonder what Kerr is doing. It is kind of awkward really.

 

0-2 vs. OKC, 1-2 vs. Houston, 2-2 vs. Denver. LOL. Sounds like their quietly confident, real quiet.

 

you'll just drive yourself to exhaustion trying to break down and grasp an understanding of what makes a douche a douche. they operate on entirely different wavelengths that only other fellow douches can comprehend

 

Golden State has had all those deep runs into the playoffs even Mj's teams of old and Dreams team got fatigued that 3rd year. Well this is the 4th year for them being in the finals. We are going to win the west in the regular season, but it doesnt mean anything if we get players hurt. MDA has got to get CP3 and Hardens minutes under control. After that Gordons Moute and Ariza need their minutes cut as well

 

There minutes have been dropping.

 

Cant wait (Bart Scott voice)

 

....but still, the GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS would like you to know they are not worried about, or even thinking of, in particular, the HOUSTON ROCKETS, who are allegedly obsessed with beating them in a NOT EVEN REMOTELY MUTUAL feeling - it's just another team.

- GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS

 

It's one reason I've always found it insulting that people(especially sports writers) just assumed that the Bulls would've run off 8 straight titles had MJ not retired. It's really really difficult to make deep playoff runs year after year like that. It takes its toll. Chicago did completely revamp its roster for the 2nd three-peat(Jordan and Pippen were the only holdovers from the first three-peat), so maybe they would've had a better shot than other repeat champions of that era. But I seriously doubt it. Overcoming the Knicks, Magic, Pacers, and Rockets in those 1994 and 1995 seasons would've left them drained and there's no way that 1996-98 run would've played out the same way as it did with MJ leaving and then coming back.

With regard to the Warriors, one thing that needs to be reiterated is how lucky they've been with opposing teams and injuries in the 2 title runs they've had. In 2015, they faced a banged up Pelicans, a Grizzlies squad that was up 2-1 on them and then lost Mike Conley, a Rockets teams that was already missing Bev and D-Mo and then had Dwight sustain a serious knee injury in the opening quarter of Game 1(a game in which we led by 16 points and barely lost, BTW), and the Cavs who were already without Kevin Love and lost Kyrie in OT of Game 1 yet still managed to be up 2-1 in that Finals.

Last season, they faced the Blazers without Nurkic for part of the series, the Jazz with a banged up Gobert(and avoided the Clippers thanks to Blake's injured toe), and the Spurs without Kawhi once Zaza intentionally injured him in Game 1(a game in which the Spurs were up more than 20 in the 2nd half).

We'll see if history repeats itself this year, but if the Warriors don't get lucky and face a Boogie-less Pelicans team in Round 1 and a Kawhi-less Spurs team in Round 2, they're gonna have to earn their way back to the WCF and Finals.

 

The Rockets are definitely in their heads. I’m loving it.

 

tied in the loss column my ass. we're up one game by virtue of the head-to-head tiebreaker. we just have to win out the rest of the schedule now and we're guaranteed homecourt throughout the playoffs

 

The GS Warriors will get so boring to the point that no one wants to know what they are thinking.

 

Man, after last night's game, I kinda more worry about Thunders in the playoff than Warriors. I understand Warriors are a far better team than OKC. But our team is built to beat the Warriors. I think OKC will give us more match up problem than Warriors. Their wings are long and athletic, they can easily stay with Ryan and cancel him out on the offense side, when our guards penetrate to the paint, they still got Adam and those long wings like PG, Grant who can block the shot. For Golden State, if they stay outside with Ryan, James or Paul can easily get to the paint and score in the paint, as they don't have that many ring protector if Green or KD is outside guarding Ryan.

 

The Thunder have always had this odd "sleeping giant" thing about them in that they should be so, so good but somehow always fall short of their potential. Last year they honestly could have beaten the Rockets but Westbrook couldn't stop himself from gunning long enough to realize how much talent he had around him. Not much different this year with their big 3. They can beat anyone if they gel but there's always going to be that worry that Westbrook will start jacking dumb shots in the second half instead of playing within himself. I would definitely have some concern if the Rockets went up against them again but I'm also slightly less worried about them without Roberson because he's one of the best Harden stoppers out there.