Warriors need to make a statement in fascinating matchup vs. Rockets

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OAKLAND – The best time, perhaps the only time, to believe what you see from the Warriors in the regular season is when they are out to make a statement.

They’ll be out to make a statement Thursday night.

They will deny it with every fiber of their collective being, peevishly insisting there is no such thing as an NBA team making a statement in January.

But the last thing they want any part of is losing to James Harden and the Houston Rockets at Oracle Arena.

This is a game the Warriors want for so many reasons that it makes for no less than a five-item list.

One, they’d like to avenge that embarrassing 21-point defeat seven weeks ago in Houston.

Two, they’re well aware of Harden taking a moment this week to predict that he will win his second consecutive MVP award.

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Three, they definitely want to avoid being the next victim of Harden, who over the last 10 games has averaged 40.8 points, 8.9 assists and 6.8 rebounds.

“We’re seeing the very best of James Harden, doing what he does, shooting his step-back 3 and getting fouled,” coach Steve Kerr said Wednesday. “He’s playing with great confidence. He’s been on a huge run. He’s been amazing.”

Four, the Warriors realize the Rockets are the hottest team in the NBA, winning five games in a row and 10 of their last 11.

Five, they’d like to maintain the momentum generated during a roundly successful two-game road trip, indicating they might be putting the championship-level pieces back together.

“The Portland win was one of the best wins of the year, under the circumstances, playing against a really good team in a tough atmosphere, on their own floor,” coach Steve Kerr said. “And then following it up with a good, solid effort against Phoenix. Hopefully, we can keep it going.”

The Warriors, to a man, cited the Western Conference Finals last May is their toughest challenge since Kerr took over as coach in 2014. There was some internal strife. The series went the full seven. The Warriors twice faced elimination. They trailed by 11 at halftime of Game 7 in Houston before coming back to outscore the Rockets by 20 in the second half to win the series.

There was, at the end, more relief than joy and every member of them was exhausted mentally and physically.

So the Warriors know what a threat the Rockets pose. And it’s not only Harden.

“He’s definitely a monster,” Jordan Bell said. “And he has really good people behind him, like (Clint) Capela, PJ Tucker and a bunch of people over there who know how to play basketball.”

Remember when the Warriors detested the Clippers? That began in the regular season and it predated Kerr’s arrival. The Warriors saw them as the league’s loudest crybabies, with Chris Paul the loudest of all.

Paul is now a Rocket, and though a tender hamstring will keep him out of this game he is no more popular among the Warriors than he was as the lead Clipper. They take special joy in beating him and his team, even if he’s unable to play.

The Warriors have tasted plenty of their own blood over the past two months. Since opening the season winning 10 of 11, they are 15-12. They were blown off their own floor by the Lakers, for crying out loud, on Christmas Day.

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Two days later, again at home, on the floor they vowed to protect before leaving it for good, the Warriors gulped down an extra-sour overtime loss to the Trail Blazers.

December, with its home-heavy schedule, was built to exploit and the Warriors failed to do that. They’d like to believe January will be appreciably better and they have to know it can’t be if they lose to these Rockets.

“Part of the issue with us this year in not really having one of these good 10-game runs, other than the very beginning of the season, has been our inability to put together 48 minutes,” Kerr said. “We got a lot closer in the two games on the trip. And it’s got to continue.”

This is, for the Warriors, a no-excuse moment. Underperformance can’t be blamed on regular-season boredom or injuries or infighting. They want this one, and they’ll have at least 48 minutes to prove how badly. 

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