The Golden State Warriors have won two out of the last three NBA championships and played in the NBA Finals for three straight years, experience head coach Steve Kerr says will help the team eke out a series win over the top-seed Houston Rockets in the upcoming Western Conference Finals.
The best-of-7 series, which kicks off Monday night in Houston, pits the team with the best record in the NBA this season against the defending champs, a matchup that has been eagerly anticipated since the season began.
Despite Houston’s home-court advantage, Kerr believes Golden State’s playoff track record will be a big assist for the Warriors and help them shut down Rockets stars James Harden and Chris Paul, neither of whom has won an NBA title.
“Our guys have rings. That’s a good position to be in,” Kerr told reporters Thursday. “To me, the hardest championship is the first one, as an individual player and as a team, because you don’t know—you don’t quite know—if you can do it. We’re going to go in here knowing we’re the defending champs, knowing we got a couple of championships here the last few years.”
On Houston’s roster, only Harden and Trevor Ariza have ever advanced to the NBA Finals.
During their regular-season series, the Rockets won two out of three against the Warriors.
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