Can the Rockets beat the Warriors?

Houston Rockets are having a great season sitting atop of western conference with the record of 56-14 and are currently the best team in the NBA. However, are they truly the best and can they beat the Warriors?

With twelve games to go Houston are 3.5 games ahead of Warriors and are considering the injury plague that hit the bay area most likely going to stay ahead giving them the home court advantage all through the playoffs. Coached by Mike D'Antoni Rockets are having one of the best seasons in the franchise history. They have the league best offence which is no surprise giving the reputation of coach D'Antoni and players on the roster (mainly James Harden), but they also rank at the pretty respectable 7th for their defence. Adding to that they have the best margain of victory in the league, winning by 8.9 points on average.

If we take a look at the roster it's clear to everybody that this team has all the makings of what is considered a contender these days. You have a couple of superstars in James Harden and Chris Paul, you have a big who can protect the rim in Clint Capela, and to round it all out you have a bunch of 3 point shooters in the likes of Eric Gordon, Gerald Green, Ryan Anderson and Trevor Ariza.

But how do they compare to the almighty Warriors?

In the last month or so prefered starting five consisted of C. Paul- J. Harden- T .Ariza- P.J. Tucker and C. Capela. Now if we compare that to the expected starting five of the GSW (assume that their injury problems have ended) of S. Curry-K. Thompson-K.Durant and the most "dangerous" guy on their roster Z. Pachulia. It's imediatly visible that James Harden will have to step up on defence, beacuse there simply is no one you can put him on to hide his flaws on the defensive end. However looking at the positives for Rockets they do have guys that they can put on Curry and expecially Durant. Chris Paul has been known for his good defence his whole carrer and sholud be able to slow Curry down. As for KD Houston have three really good defenders to try and stop the best offensive player on the planet. Trevor Ariza, P.J. Tucker and Luc Mbah a Moute are all more then capable of getting under Durant's skin.

All thing considered this is a potential classic and should be a really interesting series if it happens, it wouldn't surprise me if it goes to game 7 to determine the winner and you can say that the 2017/18 Houston Rockets are the best non-Lebron team that the dubs had to play in last three years.