Analysis: Warriors' unbalanced roster causing problems at worst possible time

OAKLAND - The Golden State Warriors have four All-Stars, all of whom are comfortably among the top 20 players in the NBA. That talent advantage has allowed them to cruise through virtually the entire past two seasons unchallenged, leading to an NBA championship last season and making them overwhelming favorites to win one again this year.

But even as the Warriors have remained in pole position among experts to win a second consecutive title, they had a roster that, if the right team could push them, and the right breaks went against them, had vulnerabilities that could derail their title run.

It appears that both the right team, and the right breaks, have arrived. Suddenly, by losing 95-92 to the Houston Rockets on Tuesday night in Game 4 of the Western Conference final here at Oracle Arena, what was supposed to be a second consecutive relatively easy march to an NBA crown has been met with stiff resistance.

And those vulnerabilities in Golden State's roster? The ones that didn't seem they would be severe enough? Well, they're looking pretty glaring now.

“It's all about toughness right now,” Rockets coach Mike D'Antoni said, after his team showed that trait in spades - and far more than they have in their much-criticized playoff past. “I think there was great basketball played on both sides, stretches of it.

“The rest of it is just gutting it out, and finding a will, a way, and a want.”

There hasn't been much of a need for Golden State to find any of those things over the past two years. Last season, the Warriors won all 15 of their playoff games before losing Game 4 of the NBA Finals to the Cleveland Cavaliers. They then promptly won Game 5 here, and won the title.

This year, it appeared like it would be more of the same. The Warriors brought back 12 of the 15 players from last year's title team - including their four All-Stars, key bench pieces in Andre Iguodala, Shaun Livingston and David West (all of whom re-signed last summer) and still have one of the league's elite coaches in Steve Kerr.

So what could go wrong?

Well, frankly, plenty.

See, the Warriors have such a talented top-end of their roster - those four All-Stars allow the Warriors to always have at least two of the top 20 players in the league on the court at once, while no other team in the NBA even has more than two of them, period - that the strange nature of the rest of the roster was glossed over for much of the season.

But the two main free agent additions Golden State made last summer - signing Nick Young for the taxpayer's mid-level exception, and Omri Casspi to a minimum deal - were spectacular failures. And having six centers, making up a staggering 40 percent of the roster, in a league that has trended toward playing smaller and faster for years (in no small part due to the Warriors' own success), never made any sense.

Those decisions left the Warriors vulnerable to precisely the position they found themselves in Tuesday night. With no Iguodala, who missed the game with a lateral contusion in his left leg, and no Patrick McCaw, who has been out since suffering a spine contusion March 31 after a rough fall against Sacramento, the Warriors essentially were left with an eight-man rotation for their biggest game of the playoffs.

One of those players was Young, who was a putrid minus-14 in 12:30 while scoring two points - an exclamation point on what has been a staggeringly bad one-year deal.

Young was supposed to provide scoring on the second unit and depth on the wings. Instead he flitted in and out of the rotation all season, splitting a spot with McCaw before his injury. Given Golden State was the heavy favorite to win a title, that $5.4 million contract should have brought them significant value from a role player. Young has provided virtually none.

Casspi, on the other hand, isn't even on the postseason roster. His season was completely derailed by injuries, and he was eventually waived before the playoffs so Golden State could convert Quinn Cook's two-way contract into a minimum deal itself.

A switchable forward defensively capable of stretching the floor from three, Casspi would have been exactly the kind of player the Warriors could use in a matchup against the Rockets. Instead, they have Cook, who played two minutes in the second quarter of Game 4 because of foul trouble for Curry, and only appeared in garbage time in Games 2 and 3 before that.

It's not that cutting Casspi was a mistake - Cook helped Golden State when Curry was injured and deserved the spot. But what Casspi was supposed to be for the Warriors would be awfully useful right now.

Instead, the Warriors find themselves in a dogfight with a more-than-game Rockets team, and with a roster that lacks the right depth to face it.

It needs to be repeated that Houston has been incredibly impressive; prior Rockets teams not only wouldn't have recovered from losing by 41 points in Game 3, but also wouldn't have been able to withstand falling behind 12-0 to start Game 4, or being outscored by 17 points in the third quarter to fall behind by 10 entering the fourth.

The Rockets did all those things, and pulled out a game they absolutely had to have by making more plays than the Warriors did. They deserve all of the credit for that.

This was precisely the moment Houston has spent the past year building toward. Still, even the Rockets would have admitted they needed some breaks - and they've gotten them.

Curry's conditioning is still a work in progress after missing seven weeks with a knee injury. Iguodala and McCaw being out means two wing players with defensive chops to throw at Paul and James Harden aren't available.

But Paul is dealing with a foot injury of his own, and Luc Mbah a Moute - a critical piece all season, and a perfect weapon to use against Golden State - isn't even playing after dislocating his shoulder twice this season, and looking ineffective early in this series.

It's not like Houston hasn't had its own adversity to deal with. No, the Rockets are a truly great team - one that was built to take on Golden State in a way no one has been able to over the two years the Warriors have had Durant.

Golden State still is favored to win this series, and should go on to win a second consecutive title. But its roster construction left it in a position where, in the right matchup and if the right things broke against them, a team that shouldn't have weaknesses because of its overwhelming top-end talent could have some.

The Rockets are that matchup. The right breaks have gone against them. Now, as a result, the Warriors head back to Houston in a far tighter spot than they should be - one that could see their championship dreams die a very unexpected death.