Golden State Warriors: 5 keys to conference finals vs. Rockets

On May 14, the Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets will commence their clash for Western Conference supremacy. Here are five key questions that will determine who comes out on top.

The “series we’ve waited for all season” is finally here.

The Houston Rockets became potential conference finalists the moment they traded for Chris Paul last summer, joining the ranks of the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs. It didn’t take long to figure out who the Golden State Warriors would have to go through. The Rockets won at Oracle Arena on opening night, and found themselves sitting atop the West at 25-4 a few months later.

A Warriors surge and Rockets slump tightened things up for a bit, but injuries and different motivations ultimately led to placing Games 1, 2 and potentially 5 and 7 in Houston. Preseason expectations may have been high for Mike D’Antoni, James Harden and Chris Paul, but not 65-wins-high, and certainly not hosting-Golden-State-high.

The Warriors, of course, are still the favorites. Even their modest 58-24 record was enough to give them the most wins over four seasons in NBA history, and their full complement of talent is still unique across time. They still have Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson. They are still coached by Steve Kerr. Finally healthy and locked in, Las Vegas has the Warriors as 1-to-2 favorites to advance to a fourth straight Finals.

Whether or not that happens depends on a bevy of factors. The number of questions surrounding individual matchups, lineup management and strategy in this series far exceeds five, or 50 for that matter.

Given that, I have selected the five most interesting and important questions from the Golden State side. The answers will ultimately determine who makes the Finals, and how easily they do so.