Best team in the NBA? Right now it's the Rockets - Houston Chronicle

Photo: Michael Ciaglo, Houston Chronicle

Houston Rockets guard James Harden (13) reacts during a free throw as the Houston Rockets take on the Dallas Mavericks at the Toyota Center Sunday, Feb. 11, 2018 in Houston. (Michael Ciaglo / Houston Chronicle)

Photo: Michael Ciaglo, Houston Chronicle

Houston Chronicle columnist Brian Smith Wednesday, March 30, 2016. ( Karen Warren / Houston Chronicle )

Photo: Karen Warren, Staff

Who would you take in a seven-game series right now: The best team in the NBA or the Warriors?

This Rockets season is getting crazy early. An NBA-leading 44-13 mark heading into the All-Star break. Ten consecutive wins and 14 of their last 15. James Harden as the no-brainer MVP choice, Chris Paul perfect as a second option, and the second year of the Mike D'Antoni Show wowing us nightly.

So, seriously: Who would you pick in a seven-game series?

Anyone who knows anything about basketball would have taken Golden State three years ago, two years ago, last year and about two weeks ago. But right now?

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The Rockets are the better team. The record says it. The stats back it up. And D'Antoni's squad is playing like it truly cares, while Steve Kerr is handing the clipboard to his players because his annual All-Stars have started tuning him out.

Anyone who can read a calendar - especially an NBA calendar - knows that mid-February definitely isn't the same as late May. But it's also a shame that we've had to play this constant "wait and see" game since mid-October, when the Rockets leapt out to a 25-4 start without Paul and announced themselves as the best early-season team in the league.

Different directions

Now they are again. And with each passing week, the Rockets have gotten stronger and grown tighter, while the Warriors have casually toyed with self-implosion.

Kerr has been forced to call out his team. Draymond Green can't make it through 48 minutes without calling out the poor refs. Golden State ranks 28th out of 30 teams in turnovers per game (15.5) and slid into the break 4-4 in its last eight games, falling to Portland 123-117 on Wednesday.

"#ripcity" tweeted Rockets general manager Daryl Morey, who should be on the way to NBA executive of the year.

Golden State's Bob Myers won two of the last three awards. The Warriors' GM recently had to hold a chat with his once-untouchable team, reminding an incredibly talented group of athletes that they were becoming famous in 2017-18 for whining about everything on the hardwood.

"We need to look more professional, to act more professional and to be more poised and to represent our team in a better light," Kerr told reporters. "I don't think we've been doing a good job of that lately."

That used to be the Rockets' problem during the Superman days. Three seasons after Dwight Howard and Harden fell to The Splash Brothers in the Western Conference finals, this is the first time that we've even be able to consider the thought that the Rockets could actually eclipse the Warriors.

If the season ended now Harden and Paul would hold home-court advantage throughout the playoffs, which means that Game 1 of the conference finals would be at Toyota Center instead of ear-crushing Oracle Arena. The Rockets already own the regular-season series and 82-game tiebreaker. And with D'Antoni's team ninth in defensive rating (104.6), they've closed the gap on a Golden State D (No. 5 at 103.7) that used to be the separating factor between the offensively obsessed teams.

"I got a lot of respect for Mike and Jeff (Bzdelik) and all those guys over there, and what they're doing as a team," said Sacramento coach Dave Joerger, after the Kings fell to the Rockets. "I really respect their team. It's amazing what James Harden has done with his game, the way he sees the floor, teammates playing off of him. Everybody is all in over there. They're a high-level team."

Flipping the switch

My rational side would still take Golden State in seven. Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson and the rest of the Warriors are living off the idea that they can simply flip the playoff switch in mid-April. Of course, they're great enough to do it. And, yes, Kerr is impersonating Gregg Popovich more and more, finding new ways to publicly motivate a team that has become tired of the mundane.

The Rockets need home-court advantage much more than Golden State. And if it is Warriors-Rockets in the conference finals, Harden's crew would have to blaze through the initial two rounds of the postseason to alter national opinion before Game 1.

Curry's Warriors have been in three consecutive NBA Finals, won two and are a 3-1 collapse away from three straight trophies. At this point in their Hall of Fame-worthy careers, Harden and Paul have been defined by playoff letdowns, not rings.

But it doesn't take a "League Pass" junkie to know that something is increasingly off with the once-unbeatable Warriors.

Bored?

Exhausted?

Seen and done it all too many times?

Whatever it is - and maybe the jolt of the playoffs will instantly fix it - Golden State is the second-best team in the NBA for a reason right now.

"Guys are dying to get to the All-Star break. We're limping to the finish line of the All-Star break," Kerr told reporters, acknowledging that his team needed to get the heck away from each other as soon as possible.

Who knew playing being paid millions to play basketball for a living was so hard?

Fifty-seven games into the too-long 82, the Rockets are only getting better. The Warriors, once the golden darlings of the NBA, have never been more unlikable and easy to root against.

The heck with the All-Star break and all this waiting. Can the playoffs start Friday?