Remember the Warriors? Those were not the Warriors. Nah. The team that plays beautiful basketball when the minds and bodies are right, that soars like a symphony when following the game plan, performed a fine opening act, but then hit all the wrong notes.
The passing, the movement, the execution. The poise that characterized their playoff runs these past four seasons, took a nosedive right into the dirt. In a poorly-timed identity lapse, the Warriors tried to match the Houston Rockets iso for iso, stopped cutting and squaring up for clean looks, turned the ball over and paid the price at the other end.