The team that had been built to take down the champs now can see, vividly and undeniably, how tough that will be.
The Rockets hit the Warriors early and chased them late. But with all the Rockets could muster, all that power of James Harden's offensive magnificence, the Warriors came in their usual waves, scoring their way past any Rockets run and badly overpowering any slowdown.
The Warriors' greatness outnumbered the Rockets', until the Warriors took a convincing 119-106 win on Monday for a 1-0 Western Conference Finals lead that captured the homecourt advantage the Rockets spent six regular-season months securing.