Golden State Warriors vs. Houston Rockets Western Conference Finals Preview

Jan 21, 2015; Oakland, CA, USA; Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) shoots the ball against the Houston Rockets during the third quarter at Oracle Arena. The Warriors won 126-113. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports

For the first time since 1976, the Golden State Warriors have advanced to the Western Conference Finals. The 2015 Western Conference Finals will feature the number one-seeded Warriors against the number two-seeded Houston Rockets.

The Warriors finished the 2014-15 regular season with the best record in the NBA at 67-15, which was also the sixth best record in NBA history. Led by MVP Stephen Curry, the Warriors are set to make a deep playoff run after sweeping the New Orleans Pelicans in the first round of the playoffs and completing a 4-2 series win over the Memphis Grizzlies in the second round of the NBA playoffs.

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The Rockets finished the 2014-15 season with a 56-26 overall record. They won their first round matchup with the Dallas Mavericks 4-1, and they beat the Los Angeles Clippers in the Western Conference Semifinals in seven games, after falling down 3-1 in the series and pulling off a miraculous comeback in Game Six to force Game Seven.

This series will feature the NBA’s MVP this season, Curry, up against the runner-up for MVP, James Harden. It also will feature two of the best defensive centers in the NBA in Dwight Howard and Andrew Bogut. Both teams like to shoot threes and play at a quick pace, so this will be an entertaining series given the history between this two teams and because of some intriguing matchups, which we will discuss later in this article.

Here’s the schedule for the series:

In this comprehensive Western Conference Finals preview, we will discuss the regular season meetings between the Warriors and the Rockets, the key matchups in this series, keys for each team to win the series, and a prediction of the result of the series.

We’ll start off this preview by examining their regular season matchups.

Next: Regular Season Meetings