The highly anticipated rematch of last year’s West Finals is coming earlier than expected, and we’re STILL underselling the stakes.
Last season’s best NBA playoff series bar none was the epic 7-game battle between the Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets. It was rich in narrative reinforcement and narrative destruction. It had more Xs and Os drama than a basketball nerd could ever reasonably wish for. It had personality and personalities. It had drama. It had rises and collapses (well, one really big collapse). It had it all.
Are we ready for the sequel? Because it’s here. Like, now.
It’s hard to overstate how monumental this second-round series between the Warriors and Rockets will be. Houston was the biggest challenger to the Warriors’ repeat title run last season, and the Rockets have looked so good of late that it may also be the case this season (despite an improved East field). The Warriors certainly haven’t looked unstoppable in the first round — the Clippers gave them a great, competitive and tough series. Meanwhile, Houston brushed aside a team (Utah) considered before the postseason began to be the toughest first-round out in the West.
Losing this series could destroy all talk of these Warriors — the 2017-19 Warriors with Stephen CurryandKevin Durant— being the best team ever created. Maybe that talk has already ended, but losing the chance at a threepeat would fully annihilate it. Losing this series could totally change Durant’s summer calculus, and the Warriors’ decision tree on Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, and DeMarcus Cousins. Losing this series could really affect Curry’s reputation, fair or not.
Meanwhile, should the Rockets lose, the championship window with Chris Paul gets a little tighter and Daryl Morey presses a little harder to add another star via pluck and ingenuity. James Harden’s case for best player in the world loses a little steam. Houston would look forward to this summer’s potential Warriors upheaval with glee and hope, but you sense the Rockets really want to prove they can beat this version of Golden State really bad. They’d lose the chance if Durant leaves.
For all the complaints about the inevitable Warriors, the Rockets almost beat them a year ago and have another chance at it this time around. That it’s happening so early in the postseason shouldn’t minimize how important the series looks. Consider too that while the Blazers have looked good and the Nuggets won’t be easy outs, this is considered the rightful West finals: the winner of this series will be favored heavily to make the NBA Finals. It’s been a few years since this has happened in the Western Conference, that what we’ll see in June is decided before Mother’s Day. But it looks to be the case here.
This series is going to be everywhere. The officiating talk is going to be endless and nauseating. We’re going to have the two-time defending champs and the reigning MVP both complaining about getting no respect. Pundits are going to ask if the Warriors’ dominance is bad for basketball (no), if Harden’s playing style is bad for basketball (no), if Moreyball is bad for basketball (no), if all the ref-working and whistle complaining is bad for basketball (yes).
All of that chatter is going to be annoying. But the basketball — yes, the basketball will be good.
The Rockets have looked like themselves for a few months now. I don’t know what Chris Paul did during his injury lay-off, but he looked 45 years old before he went out early in the season and looked like Chris Paul when he returned. (Wait, was he out the same time as LeBron? Wasn’t Carmelo Anthony already out, too? Did they secretly record Space Jam 2 this winter? Did CP3 actually get body-snatched by the Mon-Stars?) Harden has somehow been even better than he was as MVP last year, even though he may not win MVP this year. He’s certainly dipped deeper into his true basketball self. He’s more James Harden than ever.
The rest of the Rockets are less frightening to opponents, though P.J. Tucker has been supreme glue and Austin Rivers is a nice twist on the rotation. With Cousins’ sad injury, the Warriors are relying on guys like Kevon Looney, Andrew Bogut, and Alfonzo McKinnie beyond the core four plus Andre Iguodala.
All of these supplemental players will matter — they always matter — but this series will be decided by whether the Warriors can either slow or outshoot James Harden and Chris Paul, whether the Rockets can take either Curry or Durant out of their rhythms without letting Klay explode, how the refs call defense on Harden and Curry, and whether there are any in-series injuries. Perhaps that’s one benefit of getting this series started now: only Cousins has been a casualty of this postseason, and everyone else should be relatively fresh.
Ready or not, it’s just about here. We don’t always get what we want in this sport, but we’ve been waiting for the rematch since the final buzzer on Game 7 last year. Here it is.