The Golden State Warriors finally got past the Houston Rockets on Monday night to reach their fourth straight NBA Finals. It was a triumph for the defending champions in a very unique way, as they’ve dealt with a series of injuries this year and played their first postseason series as the lower seed in what felt like forever.
Overcoming a Rockets team powered by James Harden wasn’t easy, especially as the Dubs battled through without Andre Iguodala, who missed the last four games of the series with a knee injury. That includes the pivotal Game 7, in which an extremely cold Rockets team that did not have Chris Paul due to an injury of his own faded away in the second half to blow a 3-2 series lead.
After the win on Monday night, Steve Kerr said the series would have been very different if Iguodala would have played. According to Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated, Kerr told reporters that the Rockets would have fallen in five games if Iguodala were healthy.
The Rockets were understandably emotional after losing just one game shy of the NBA Finals, with Trevor Ariza, Clint Capela and P.J. Tucker in tears. Apparently, Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni told Warriors All-Star forward Kevin Durant during Game 7 that his team would have won the series if Paul played. While unwinding long after the win with Morton’s The Steakhouse cuisine and a cold one, Kerr responded to those words by saying, “We would have won the series in five if Iggy played.”
It’s a fun game of hypotheticals, but it’s something that both sides can play. Paul, for example, was brilliant in Game 5 before suffering a hamstring injury. He was unable to go in Game 6, a contest where the Rockets clearly ran out of gas in the third quarter. He also missed Game 7, a game where Houston was historically bad at putting the ball through the hoop from beyond the arc. Either of those games would have been different with a healthy Paul, but we’ll never know.
Perhaps alarmingly for Warriors fans, Kerr admitted he didn’t know when Iguodala will be healthy enough to play in the Finals. With Game 1 set for Thursday, it will be interesting to see how he talks about the injury in the lead-up to the series. It’s clear the Warriors are better with him on the floor, and as Kerr thinks, would have had a bit more rest leading into the series if he were healthy.
