When the Warriors received Sport 4 of their first-round playoff matchup with the Houston Rockets, they celebrated on the court docket as if the sequence was over.
Bear hugs accompanied a palpable sense of aid.
Even within the second, all of it felt like a bit a lot.
Then once more, up 3-1 in a best-of-seven sequence, the consequence was inevitable, proper?
Effectively, not fairly.
What goes up should come down, and the Warriors fell means down on Wednesday.
So now Chase Heart will host one other recreation on Friday — Sport 6 — all as a result of Sport 5 wasn’t a lot of a contest.
The Rockets — backs in opposition to the wall, satisfaction on the road, insert different sports activities trope right here — didn’t simply beat the Warriors in Houston, they obliterated them.
They made the Warriors look previous, drained, and injured as a result of, properly, the Warriors are previous, drained, and injured.
It wasn’t till the Warriors pulled their high gamers early within the second half that the sport grew to become attention-grabbing. What ought to have been a simple coast to the end for the Rockets grew to become a bit bushy in opposition to the younger, feisty, and ready-to-fight end-of-the-bench Santa Cruz Warriors.
However guys like Pat Spencer had been solely within the recreation as a result of Houston couldn’t cease scoring, and the Warriors couldn’t purchase a bucket for the primary three quarters. Any time Golden State threatened to make it attention-grabbing, the Rockets regained management and stretched their already prodigious lead.
The Warriors no-showed at an elimination recreation on the street.
And you’ll’t say it wasn’t predictable.
Sure, it appears as if the Warriors entered Sport 5 with the bottom of expectations.
They obtained what they deserved.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr mentioned that he “didn’t have [his team] team ready to play.”
That’s boilerplate coach-speak, people.
However hardly ever do you hear such a suggestion earlier than the sport.
We heard it on Wednesday.
NBA coaches spend time with the nationwide saying crews earlier than playoff video games, often in a again room following their pre-game press convention with the non-paying media.
These conversations hardly ever quantity to a lot however often embrace a nugget or two the broadcasters can use concerning rotations or defensive matchups. It’s fodder for the awkward moments between free throws.
However Warriors coach Steve Kerr advised TNT’s Spero Dedes and Candace Parker one thing downright fascinating earlier than Sport 5.
Per Dedes, who shared this lower than 4 minutes into the sport:
“He said, ‘Look, very little rest, cross-country flights, I’ve got an older team — we’ll see how this thing goes early; see how long we can potentially chase it.’”
Probably chase it?
The Warriors positive had been in it to win it, huh?
I can recognize being cognizant of the second, and I received’t go so far as to say the Warriors punted Sport 5, however Kerr didn’t precisely echo Michael Jordan’s “I’m only packing one suit” line from the 1993 NBA Finals, did he?
Maybe the Warriors would have misplaced if that they had been on the market trying to shut the sequence in earnest on Wednesday. It might need been the Rockets’ night time it doesn’t matter what.
But it surely’s not as if the problems raised by Kerr — older workforce, cross-country flight, little or no relaxation — abate earlier than Sport 6 or 7.
This every-other-day stretch was all the time the primary risk to the Warriors. They took care of enterprise amid the lengthy layoffs between the primary 4 video games of the season, however now that the video games are coming quick and livid, the issues that include such a schedule solely compound.
Sure, Draymond Inexperienced solely performed 18 minutes on Wednesday, with Steph Curry and Jimmy Butler including a paltry 23 and 25, however this recreation may have a tail. If not for Friday’s Sport 6, then for the remainder of the Warriors’ playoff run — nevertheless lengthy that may be.
Curry’s proper thumb is so swollen water-logged, Butler’s “running” round like he has a busted butt, as a result of he does (4 yr of journalism faculty got here in helpful for that remark), and Inexperienced was getting too previous for the playoffs in 2022.
Briefly, it’s within the Warriors’ finest curiosity to maintain the sequence as quick as attainable. You don’t use a traditional automotive for long-distance hauling.
But the Warriors nearly willingly added extra distance than wanted on Wednesday.
And the way presumptuous of this workforce, even with all their expertise, to, on the very least, take ‘er simple Wednesday.
These Warriors haven’t precisely been position fashions for caring for enterprise. There’s a motive they had been within the play-in event, in any case.
And what’s to say that Friday will probably be this workforce’s day?
The Warriors consider in themselves — that a lot we all know is true.
“We’re fine. Our confidence isn’t gonna waver any,” Butler mentioned. “We’re going to start out better, we’re going to play better overall game, because we know how good of a team we are as a unit, and we know how good our players are as individuals… we’ll be fine.”
Maybe.
Maybe not.These Warriors have been many issues this yr, however reliable shouldn’t be one in all them.
And now they’re a workforce getting ready to catastrophe. One other flight to Houston could be a demise knell to any grandiose concepts about titles which have floated across the Warriors’ locker room because the Butler acquisition.
Sure, it’s all on the road in Sport 6.
We’re about to seek out out if the Warriors — a workforce that ought to know higher — celebrated too early.
