Rockets general manager Daryl Morey readily admits that his team is “obsessed” with dethroning the Golden State Warriors.
“It’s the only thing we think about,” Morey said.
Golden State booted the Rockets out of the postseason in 2015 and ’16, and has won two of the last three NBA championships.
Per ESPN:
“It’s the only thing we think about,” Morey said on ESPN Radio’s The Ryen Russillo Show on Thursday. “I think I’m not supposed to say that, but we’re basically obsessed with ‘How do we beat the Warriors?’
“Last year the Spurs knocked us off, so we’re very worried about the Spurs, they’re always one step ahead of every organization and guard us better than anyone. But we calculated it — it’s like 90 percent if we’re gonna win a title, we’ve gotta obviously beat the Warriors at some point. So we’re extremely focused on that. A lot of our signings and what we do during the year is based on that.”
The Warriors eliminated the Rockets from the playoffs in the 2015 conference finals and again in the first round the following year. Houston lost to the Spurs in six games in last season’s conference semifinals.
“I don’t know why you’d do anything else,” Morey told The Ryen Russillo Show. “Like, what is the point of this league except winning a title? So we’d love to get the 1-seed, we’d love to win more games than any in Rockets history, which is 58. Those are all nice things, but frankly we spend most of our time just figuring out how we might just knock the Warriors out in seven games. Because we’re pretty sure that’s what’s going to define our season.”
