HOUSTON -- No regular-season game means all that much for a couple of rivals that played seven games in the Western Conference finals last season.
So nobody wanted to jump to any grand conclusions after Golden State Warriors held on for a 106-104 win Wednesday over the Houston Rockets, a team that has established themselves over the last two seasons as the two-time defending champions' primary challengers.
"We didn't learn nothing that we didn't already know," guard Chris Paul said after the Rockets' nine-game winning streak was snapped and any realistic hope of catching the Warriors for the West's top seed was extinguished.