The Warriors lost to the Houston Rockets on Sunday night, ending the Dubs’ incendiary five-game run through Western Conference competition.
But the Rockets, who turned in a virtuosic defense performance worthy of intense study, were not the real winners of the game.
No, that, instead, would be us.
Rivalries are the lifeblood of sports, and there are few NBA rivalries — if any — that bring out the kind of fire and brimstone that the Rockets and Warriors seem to have for each other.
If these teams were to play in a true playoff series this spring, I’m not sure anyone would get out alive.
(I’m only slightly kidding.)
But as physically ruinous as a best-of-seven set would be, it would be equally fulfilling spiritually.
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Hate shouldn’t get such a bad rap. Do you want to watch a bunch of friends play a physical sport?
I prefer something more significant on the line than just a game. We can all see that players are putting their bodies on the line — that should go without saying — but I selfishly want their souls to be in the balance, too.
I want the wins and losses to mean something.
The vitriol between these two squads was omnipresent on Sunday. That—more so than the importance of the Western Conference standings or the Warriors’ winning streak—made the game a can’t-take-your-eyes-off-it affair, even if the Warriors would like to “flush” the game film.
The Warriors’ hate for the Rockets goes back a decade. I don’t think we adequately contextualized during the Warriors’ five-Finals run just how much the Dubs hated Houston. It wasn’t that the Rockets were the second-best team in the West.
No, to the Warriors the Rockets represented a scourge on the NBA. This wasn’t a battle of teams — it was one of ideals, of roundball dogma, even.
Or, in simpler terms — the Warriors played the game the right way and if the Rockets were to beat them with their “wrong” way of James Harden heliocentrism, the sport would suffer.
When these teams faced off, it always brought out both their best. (It’s not my fault, Houston’s best wasn’t good enough.) In 2017, it was the “real” NBA Finals.
And you’ve never seen professional athletes seethe and fume quite like the Warriors did with the Rockets.
The feeling, it should be noted, was reciprocated — and perhaps even accentuated — by Houston.
The deep hate that Steph Curry, Draymond Green, and Steve Kerr had for the Rockets made the Chris Paul (Houston 2017-2019) acquisition by the Warriors so uncouth. You’re now buddy-buddy with a sworn enemy?
It was enough to make you consider the rivalry over. Harden is on his third different team since leaving Houston. Pat Beverley and Trevor Ariza are retired. Eric Gordon and Paul have been bouncing around while their standing in the league has fallen to “Who He Play For?” levels.
The Rockets, at their best, mounted two great challenges to the Dubs in 2018 and 2019.
The Warriors’ main duo — Curry and Green — are looking to win a second title in this decade.
It’s a testament to longevity and loyalty unheard of in today’s NBA.
And as the Warriors’ veterans look to make the end of their careers nearly as prosperous as the relative beginnings, the Rockets have decided to reprise their old role of foil.
Make no mistake about it: Houston can play. They put the clamps on both Curry and Jimmy Butler Sunday, leaving the Warriors with only 96 points in a 10-point Houston win.
But it goes deeper than just a few tough games with the Warriors.
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There’s something about that Rockets red that makes the Dubs go crazy. Even in the lost 2019-2020 season, we saw Green going all-out to beat the Rockets on Christmas.
Why?
It wasn’t love of the game. No, it was something more pure:
It was true hate of a rival.
And this new-look Rockets team has plenty to hate.
Respect where it’s due: Rockets owner Tillman Fertitta (who is soon to be the ambassador to Italy) kept the flames of this rivalry alive by acquiring the eminently dislikable Dillon Brooks (a long-time foil of of the Dubs, previously with Memphis), and head coach Ime Udoka, who had some solid banter with the Dubs when he was the coach of the Celtics in the 2022 NBA Finals.
Those two get the Warriors’ collective blood boiling.
It’s just like old times again.
Brooks was his usual hacking, yapping self in Sunday’s game. He out-Draymonded Green, scoring 24 points on an absurd 77 percent shooting.
And Udoka — always looking to get into something — was seen yapping at Curry at halftime.
“I was talking to my team about the physicality. This is the type of game we like. This is who we are. He said something. I said something. A little friendly banter,” Udoka said after the game.
“He made a reservation at International Smoke, and then he canceled it. So I was kinda upset with him,” Curry joked.
Add in that physicality Udoka desires from his team and some questionable officiating, and you had a perfect storm for drama. You also had an entertaining basketball game, even if the game itself wasn’t the highest level of basketball.
Which is to say that it was a great departure from the NBA’s norm.
The Warriors will be fine after Sunday’s loss. They’ll need to win all five of their remaining regular-season games, but that’s hardly a ridiculous ask.
Meanwhile, the Rockets’ high off the win should carry them into the playoffs — they likely clinched the No. 2 seed in San Francisco.
Either way, these two teams could well be on a collision course in the postseason.
The rivalry is so back, you guys.
And we’re all better for it.
