Warriors eye finishing touch in West finals

The external competition in the Western Conference finals is over. When and how the series ends is strictly a matter of the Golden State Warriors' ability to maintain their elevated level of play.

Maybe that's all this series ever was.

The Warriors have beaten the Houston Rockets all seven times they have played this season, including the first three games of this series. Of the seven, only the first two games of the conference finals have been close. Once the Warriors cut down the careless turnovers -- they gave up the ball only once in the first half of Game 3 -- the Rockets couldn't come within 20 points of them.

Can the Warriors sustain their success? It's what they've done better than anyone else this season. The Atlanta Hawks had the longest winning streak during the regular season, with 19 consecutive games, but only the Warriors had two double-digit winning streaks this year, of 16 and 12 games. The Warriors are riding a six-game winning streak in the playoffs, which is equally impressive, given the challenge of beating quality teams repeatedly.

They keep winning as long as Stephen Curry keeps hitting 3-pointers, which in both cases means regularly. The Warriors have won every playoff game in which Curry has made at least three 3s. He has made at least five in the past five games. No other player has ever had such a run longer than two games in the playoffs.

Curry's ability to transform the outlier into the routine has changed the nature of postseason basketball, and it is defeating the Rockets on their own ground. Houston wants to take and make a high volume of 3-pointers, but the Rockets can't match the accuracy of Curry and the Warriors.

Curry has been so good it's made up for the wayward shooting of fellow Splash Brother Klay Thompson.

Curry made seven 3s in Game 3; Thompson has made only four in the entire series. Thompson is shooting 18 percent on 3-pointers in the conference finals after shooting 44 percent in the regular season and better than 47 percent in the first two rounds. If Thompson gets anywhere close to his usual standards, it might even allow for an off night by Curry.

Will Thompson snap out of his slump? Will Curry fall into one? Will Draymond Green return his focus to the present, after spending part of the off day speculating on the impact extended time off could have on the quality of play when the NBA Finals start on June 4?

The Rockets just showed an admirable amount of resilience in the last round, when they became just the ninth team to overcome a 3-1 deficit in an NBA playoff series.

But Golden State has been too good and too consistent to let Houston become the first team to come back from 3-0.