The Warriors needed seven games to dispatch the pesky Houston Rockets in the Western Conference Finals. Houston proved to be perhaps the toughest Western Conference foe Golden State has faced in the Steve Kerr era, and even gave the Warriors a run for their money in Game 7, despite being without perennial All-Star Chris Paul.
Paul’s absence in Games 6 and 7 will forever raise questions of what could have been for a Rockets team that won Games 4 and 5 with their point guard in the fold.
For Houston coach Mike D’Antoni, there is no question. According to The Undefeated, he believes his team would’ve won the series if Paul didn’t sustain a hamstring injury at the tail-end of Game 5. When presented with that information, Warriors coach Steve Kerr responded by saying that Golden State would’ve won in five games if Andre Iguodala didn’t miss the final four games of the series with a left lateral leg contusion.
Apparently, Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni told Warriors All-Star forward Kevin Durant during Game 7 that his team would have won the series if (Chris) Paul played. While unwinding long after the win with Morton’s The Steakhouse cuisine and a cold one, Kerr responded to those words by saying, “We would have won the series in five if Iggy played.”
In the three games that he played in the series, the Warriors were a combined +4 with Iguodala on the floor. The Rockets were a combined -20 in the five games that featured Paul.