Oakland, Calif. • The past six months have been a prelude for the next two weeks.
Over the course of 82 games and the first two rounds of this year's playoffs, the entire basketball world anticipated a collision course between the sport's two most dominant forces: the Golden State Warriors and the Houston Rockets.
After the Warriors and Rockets dispatched the New Orleans Pelicans and Utah Jazz Tuesday night, respectively, the time for that showdown has finally arrived.
The defending champion Warriors, who cruised to 58 wins this season without breaking a sweat, have made three straight NBA Finals appearances, winning twice. With four of the best 15 or so players in the league, not to mention a roster full of experienced postseason performers, the Warriors spent the first 82 games acting like they knew they could turn it on — and then did precisely that in five-game series wins over the San Antonio Spurs and Pelicans.
The Rockets, winners of a league-best 65 games, will try to end the Warriors’ Finals streak on the back of presumptive league MVP James Harden. At the close of last year's Finals, Rockets general manager Daryl Morey was famously quoted as saying he'd have to "up his risk profile" if his team was to compete with Golden State.
Morey then swung a trade for future Hall-of-Famer Chris Paul, added versatile veteran defenders P.J. Tucker and Luc Mbah a Moute, and watched center Clint Capela continue to swiftly develop into the kind of long, lean, switchable defending machine that seems built to go up against the Warriors' offensive attack. It was a formula built to stop Golden State, but one that also took care of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Jazz in five games each.
These are the two best offenses in the NBA, and two of the best in league history. There is star power on both sides, and playoff history and animus to go with it.
This series has everything. And it begins Monday in Houston.
"We know they are a great team," Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. "We know they are ready, and we'll be ready for them."
Everyone has been ready for this since opening night, when the Rockets came here to Oracle Arena and beat the Warriors even with Paul dealing with an injury that would keep him out for the season's first month. That set Houston on a path to NBA's best record, as the Rockets remained neck-and-neck with the Warriors until after the All-Star break, when injuries hampered Golden State and Houston kept rolling.
Along the way came two more meetings between these teams in January, with Golden State winning the first and Houston winning the second. After the third and final meeting, Capela told ESPN what the Rockets were thinking.
"We're confident because we know if we're doing what we're supposed to do, we're going to beat them," he said. "I think that if we're doing what we're supposed to do on defense — all the switches, the weak side — and keep playing our offense by keeping that mentality all game long, we have the weapons to beat them.
"We are better than them."
Those comments have sat in the minds of the Warriors for five months. Draymond Green wasn't shy when asked about the Rockets on Tuesday night.
"What did somebody say after? What did he say? What'd he say? Yeah, you've got to play the game now," Green said with a laugh. "That's all fine and dandy in January. But now, you know, they got us. We got them. Got to go out and play. We'll see who's better."
There has been no team better built to credibly challenge these Warriors since Kevin Durant signed with them in July 2016. It starts with 48 minutes of Hall of Fame-level point guard play from Harden and Paul. Throw in long, lanky perimeter defenders such as Mbah a Moute, Tucker and Trevor Ariza to throw at Durant. There are scorers such as Eric Gordon and Gerald Green off the bench, plus an energy big in Nene behind Capela.
Even with all that in mind, Houston still has to go out and beat the Warriors four times in a seven-game series, something no other team has done since Durant's arrival in the Bay. The Warriors haven't even lost four playoff games total since he showed up; after Tuesday's win, Golden State is now 24-3 in playoff games with Durant, and 55-17 over the past four postseasons since Kerr became head coach.
Only once in those three-plus seasons have the Warriors lost a playoff series — and it took the greatest player of his generation, LeBron James, leading his team back from a three-games-to-one deficit in the NBA Finals. And while Golden State will have to start on the road in a playoff series for the first time during the Kerr era, they are more than confident about going into Houston and winning at least one of the first two games.
Taking down the defending champions is a daunting task. But that Houston is even given a credible chance of doing so is an acknowledgment of how great the Rockets are, and how much fun this series could be.
There's a reason it has been billed as the de facto NBA Finals since these teams met for a third time in January.
Five months later, this clash of titans has finally arrived. And with five days before Game 1, the anticipation will only grow — as will the opportunities for both sides to get their licks in.
"We won two championships in three years," Green said. "We don't have to run around talking about how bad we want to play somebody. We want to win another championship, and don't matter who is in the way of that. If you in the way of that, then you happen to be in the way.
"We're not about to run around like, 'Yeah, we want to play them in the conference finals.' For what? It don't matter to us who we play.
"However, we got them. Now? Let's get it."
It's all we've been asking for.