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Nick Wright: Rockets would rather face Warriors in the playoffs than Spurs

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One of the most vocal Golden State Warriors antagonists in the national media joined KNBR 1050’s The Audible on Tuesday morning.

This season, Fox Sports’ Nick Wright has said the following:

  1. The Warriors were a better team without Kevin Durant
  2. The Warriors can’t beat the Cavaliers come June
  3. The Warriors are an ‘overwhelmingly arrogant team’
  4. “I am here to admit my bias: I am Nick Wright and I do not like the Golden State Warriors.”

It’s kind of fun to keep tabs on people like Wright and Charles Barkley. Some of their takes can be decent at times, but others are obviously entirely over the top for entertainment purposes. It came as no surprise when Wright prognosticated the Rockets would rather face the Warriors in the playoffs than the San Antonio Spurs.

“They are going to be the three seed, no matter what,” Wright said. “But James Harden is trying to win a damn MVP. So he’s not taking any time off. I also think the Rockets know there is a little bit of a psychological factor and you can make the argument that the Rockets are saying who would we rather face? Who do we want to be the two seed? A Warriors team that may be expected to be the one (seed) where Kevin Durant is not fully functional, or a Spurs team that seems to be playing the best basketball its played in three years. I think the Rockets are fully incentivized tonight and Harden’s fully incentivized. I like the Rockets tonight.

“No matter what seed the Cavs are, people are going to pick them to win the East. I think the one seed out West is incredibly important because I think the Rockets are a really, really good team and if you are the one seed, you are only going to have to play San Antonio or Houston. … If you are the two seed you’re going to have to play them both. So I think the one seed is immensely important, not because of home-court in the Western Conference Finals is so important, but I don’t want to have to play the Rockets in round two.”

It’s hard to take a self-proclaimed Warriors hater seriously, but Wright has a point about the importance of this final stretch. Facing the Rockets is not advantageous for either the Warriors or the Spurs. That’s going to be a six or seven game series, both mentally and physically taxing. Theoretically, Tuesday and Wednesday in Texas are playoff seeding games.

By the way, Houston is 8 3-pointers away from breaking Golden State’s record from last year. They can win a shooting battle. Steve Kerr, Steph Curry, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson and Durant will have to get creative if Houston is hotter from behind the arc come May. Harden has been absolutely out of his mind under Mike D’Antoni.

As far as the Rockets wanting to face the two-time defending Western Conference champs over Kawhi Leonard? Nobody wants to face the Warriors. Nice try Nick.