Lowell Cohn: Warriors' beautiful basketball a joy to watch

OAKLAND - Beautiful basketball clashes with disgusting basketball. If it were a comic book, it would be Beauty vs. Disgusto.

Beauty is the Golden State Warriors. Disgusto is the Houston Rockets. All you need to know. But I'll elaborate.

Around here we're lucky. We saw the Warriors 41 times at home, 82 times if you watched away games on the tube. What did we see?

The most beautiful basketball ever played. Passing and passing and then more passing. Constant movement. Guys cutting to the hoop. Guys driving the lane and then passing back out for the 3-point shot.

And those 3-point shots. Wow! Before the Warriors got win No. 73, Dave Joerger, coach of the human-sacrifice Memphis Grizzlies, said the Warriors make shots other teams won't even take. He meant it as high praise.

So, with the Warriors, you get the ultimate team game, basketball in its purest form and - big point here - its most unselfish form.

Cut to Disgusto from Texas. The Rockets offer the greatest contrast of styles to the Warriors. More than any other team in the NBA.

Passing the ball? Forget it. Unselfish? Forget it. This team is the Platonic ideal of selfish. Team concept? Forget it. The Rockets play one-on-one ball. They are the worst. Mostly it comes down to James Harden, their star - a great player. Give him credit.

Take a look at Harden in Game 1 Saturday. Really watch how he plays. He gets the ball near the circle and then he bounces it. Watch James Harden bounce the ball. The four other Rockets are reduced to standing around like commuters at a bus stop. Watch the four other Rockets watch.

When an impulse eventually crosses a synapse in his brain, Harden drives to the hoop. Watch Harden drive. He is a good driver. He usually makes the layup and gets fouled. Watch Harden get fouled. Watch Harden take a free throw. Mostly, he sinks the free throw and scores three points. And you just want to die of boredom. The other Rockets probably feel the same way.

Compare Harden to Stephen Curry. See how Curry passes the ball and sets up his teammates for great shots. See how Curry is a team player as opposed to what Harden is. You knew guys like Harden when you were a kid. He played hoops in the schoolyard and was the best by a mile, but he never passed the ball. He was a ball hog deluxe. Still is. In his heyday, Kobe Bryant was never this me, me, me. The Rockets qualify as bizarre.

Anyway, after Harden makes his free throw, the Rockets run down the court to play defense. Or maybe they don't. Play defense, that is. On defense, they don't exactly knock themselves out. And they don't bother to hide their lack of interest. They don't defend the 3 well. Bad news when they're playing the Warriors. They are the sixth-worst defensive team in the league in points allowed. Good luck this afternoon, guys.

That brings us to Dwight Howard, the Rockets center, supposedly their anchor on defense. With an anchor like him, the ship's in danger of floating away.

In some ways, Howard is a fraud. Fraud is a hard word. It applies.

Think like a basketball player. “If I get beat, I trust the center to pick up my man.” This is how the Warriors feel about Andrew Bogut, Bogut guarding his part of the floor and protecting the rim, Bogut the policeman.

Howard? No one trusts him. He smiles a lot, but sometimes he disappears. I assume he is a better athlete than Bogut by almost any metric you choose. But he doesn't have Bogut's fire and meanness and “teamness” and pure unadulterated desire.

Howard is supposed to be a star on the Rockets. Watch him not be a star. His contract pays him more than $80 million. He's talking about opting out after this season - he's allowed. He wants even more money. A max contract. Even though his back hurts and his production declines. He's all that's wrong with pro sports. Give me Andrew Bogut over Dwight Howard 365 days a year.

By now, you're noticing I disapprove of the Houston Rockets.

There's more. There's their general manager. Guy named Daryl Morey. May be a very nice man when he's home. An analytics nut. “Moneyball” meets basketball. He has all these equations and logarithms about what makes a good player and a good team. Sort of like a baseball team around here. Morey has had moderate success with the Rockets. This season they finished 41-41 and squeaked in as the eighth and last seed and get to play the Warriors.

These Moneyballers forget players are people. The human element. Oh, that one. If Morey understood the people part, he'd never have this kind of team. The Warriors never would have this kind of team, not with general manager Bob Myers picking players like Draymond Green and Harrison Barnes. Good guys. Good locker room. Unselfish team.

Give credit to coach Steve Kerr. He brings joy to the operation. His team plays in joy. His team takes joy in the hard defensive work and the hard work of making the extra pass. Kerr's joy has moved up and down in the organization. Changed the culture, as they say. Made owner Joe Lacob a joyful customer.

Watch the Rockets Saturday. See if they play in joy.

The Warriors vs. the Rockets is a clash of philosophies. A stark and dire contrast. If the Rockets eliminate the Warriors, it will be a desecration. And that's the problem.

The Rockets are dangerous. That's what's so troubling about them, being dangerous in spite of what they are. They have a superstar.

Their point guard Patrick Beverley is a serious one-on-one defender. They are a veteran team. They made it to the conference final last season.

Give them the credit that is due. Be fair. And then face reality. The Rockets win one game. At most. This series is desecration-proof.

Visit the Cohn Zohn at cohn.blogs.pressdemocrat.com. You can reach Staff Columnist Lowell Cohn at lowell.cohn@pressdemocrat.com.