This Rockets-Warriors series is what we needed

If you’re one of those people who thinks the NBA got significantly worse the day Kevin Durant paid a ghost-writing Syracuse grad to pen his Players’ Tribune “article” on his “next chapter” on July 4, 2016, just hold on.
 

We’re getting close.
 

And when it does end -- maybe at some point in the next week?! -- remember: Smile because it’s over. But also, cry, because it happened.
 

The Rockets, thanks to MVP performances by James Harden and Eric Gordon’s emergence as maybe Houston’s second-best player, are back in this thing, with a chance to steal Game 5 tonight against a team that isn’t playing well outside of Kevin Durant, who is, let’s just be honest, an absolute joy to watch play basketball.
 

Most noticeably, the Splash Brothers, one of which seems a little unhappy, have been off.
 

The numbers:

Klay Thompson: 16 Points | 6-16 FG | 2-6 3PT | Minus-3
 Steph Curry: 17 Points | 7-23 FG | 2-9 3PT | Minus-1
 

Result: Rockets win, 126-121, in overtime

Klay Thompson: 11 Points | 5-15 FG | 1-6 3PT | Minus-12
 Steph Curry: 30 Points | 12-25 | 4-14 3PT | Plus-2
 

Result: Rockets win, 112-108
 

For the series, Curry and Thompson are shooting the three ball at 28 percent, or 20-of-72. The Hamptons Five lineup -- Andre Iguodala, Curry, Thompson, Durant and Draymond Green -- which at times over the last four years has felt like a cheat code, has been countered with Houston’s South Beach Five.
 

There’s some good juju happening for the Rockets right now. And that’s the absolute closest we’re going to get to predicting the end of the Golden State Warriors*.
 

*We’re all in on this series being the end of the Golden State Warriors.

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