A Look Back at the Longtime Rivalry Between the Rockets and Warriors
From San Diego battles to epic playoff clashes, discover the fiery history igniting the Rockets and Warriors' enduring rivalry.
The Golden State Warriors seem like an undeniable rival to the Houston Rockets. After all, their 240 regular season matchups ranks GSW as the Rockets’ fourth most frequent opponent. You might be surprised to see that the Kings are their most played opponent, as seen on StatMuse .
A big chunk of these games came when the league was much smaller and the two franchises were much closer in distance. Back in the Rockets’ inaugural season they were located in San Diego, playing eight games against the San Francisco Warriors. A whopping amount that no doubt inflates the total numbers.
Just through the Rockets’ four seasons in San Diego, they played the Warriors 27 times. Another six games in their debut year as the Houston Rockets, before finally getting to the normal 3-4 matchups a year that we’re accustomed to now, per LandOfBasketball . Despite that seeming like ancient history now, the Rockets and Warriors have had battles much more recently than that.
Yes, actually in this century. This matchup has given fans some of the most memorable basketball in the past decade. With the Harden and CP3 backcourt taking the unbeatable superteam right to the brink of elimination in 2018, we saw the peak of an era.