Welp, that's a heartbreaker if you're the Rockets. 
They NEEDED Game 1 to establish the tone and the momentum in their favor to make Game 2 an absolute must for the Warriors. James Harden looked every bit like this year's League MVP out there. But, they gave the Warriors a lethal first punch, but they just shrugged it off as if to say, "Is that all you got?" and won by double digits, with the pace of the game firmly in their control from the start of the 2nd half. 

Golden State did exactly what they needed to do. Now, Game 2 is put up or shut up time for Houston. 

Is anyone besides Rocket fans really surprised though? 

Hindsight being 20/20, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. After 3 straight trips to the Finals with 2 championships, the Warriors are at the point where they don't need home court advantage to win a playoff series. But, I still can't help but feel bad for the Rockets. This was a must win game for them. Now Game 2 is do-or-die, as far as I'm concerned. If they lose Game 2, they're finished.

Prior to game 1, most analysts sang all the right praises to Lebron and gave Boston absolutely no credit to win this series. I'm a Cleveland boy, and I know my team sucks... we would never be this deep in the playoffs if we didn't have the greatest player in the world. That being said, I knew the Boston Celtics would exploit the Cavs for being a one man team. Watch them continue to shut down all the Players who aren't Lebron in this series. Lebron will have his 40 point games, sure, but that isn't going to mean shit when Boston silences everyone else. They are just too good defensivley. I predict either a sweep or Celtics in 5.

I support Lebron leaving Cleveland. I respect him as an individual player after these playoffs and realized Cleveland is not the place for him to win championships anymore.

Warriors are simply too good. Too many match up issues for Houston and not enough ball movement. Game 2 is an absolute must win for the Rockets if they want to have any chance. 

Kinda sucks that the Rockets lost but at least Harden had a good game. But even the odd makers had them at two point underdogs in that game so its no big surprise that they lost.

If the 76er would have drafted Jayson Tatum instead of Markelle Fultz they probably would have beat the Celtics in the quarterfinals.  And ironically they actually traded up two spots with the Celtics to draft Fultz.  Its good that the 76ers have pretty good team overall since Fultz could very well end up as one of the biggest busts taken at the #1 spot in the draft.  Also if LeBron leaves I don't think the Cavaliers are going to completely fall off the map in the East since they have the 8th pick in the draft my guess is they are still going to win around 45 games next season if he leaves which is still good enough to make the playoffs.

Truth is, the Warriors are just too much, and if you're a realist, you probably knew that already. When they got everyone out there healthy, you're not beating them 4 times in 7 games. Just not happening.

That said, props to Harden for playing at an MVP level there in game 1. I honestly don't trust that guy, but if he balls out like that throughout the series, he'll have proved me wrong about him.

If I'm currently the Rockets, I have to be scared shitless. Harden had 41 points and they dominated the beginning of the game like they should. Not only did the Warriors come back, they beat them by double digits. Sure a few players can contribute more on the offensive end, but odds are Harden will not be scoring 40+ with others like Paul and Capella on his team.

What's also scary is the fact that the Warrriors didn't get much scoring from Curry or Green. Curry only had 18, so if he could manage to bump that up to say 25 per game, that takes a bit of the stress off Klay who had 28. If Green could just get to that 10-15 point benchmark from here on out, then I have to say this is going to be a sweep.

If Steph had been playing up to his full, Unanimous MVP potential, Game 1 would've been a bigger blowout than the Celtics and Cavs. What we saw from Harden and CP3 are pretty much the best they are both capable of. The Rockets' bench is capable of better, but so is the Warriors'.