Dwight Howard and the Houston Rockets have played the Golden State Warriors four times this season, and have come away loser on all four occasions. You’d think Houston’s defensive bell cow would have utmost respect for The Bay’s team, then, but you’d be wrong. Asked after last night’s 126-113 drubbing at the hands of Golden State if he’d just faced basketball’s best team, Howard demurred.

Dwight Howard after the loss to the Warriors: "I think the Hawks are the best team. They got the best record, right?" — Diamond Leung (@diamond83) January 22, 2015

Pretty sly, Dwight.

Golden State’s 34-6 record trumps the similarly dominant 35-8 mark of the Atlanta Hawks. Either Howard is unaware of that fact or he’s simply engaging in some off-court gamesmanship – considering the source and the outright tension between the Warriors and Rockets, it’s likely a combination of the two.

The teams nearly came to blows last night after Trevor Ariza took exception to an offensive foul by Steph Curry and promptly ran into the MVP candidate, sparking Curry to chase after him. If not for the cool head and strong hands of Draymond Green that held Curry back, it really seemed like he might have became physical with Ariza. And of course, Howard and Andrew Bogut are always good for some extra tussling down low, too.

Golden State’s average margin of victory in its quartet of wins over Houston is just over 15 points per game. Is it possible that Howard really believes Atlanta – his hometown team, by the way – is better than the ‘Dubs? Sure. That’s how dominant the Hawks have been of late.

But it seems most likely that Dwight is simply unwilling to give credit to Steve Kerr’s team because of the budding rivalry between the Western Conference powers. And unfortunately for us but fortunately for the Rockets, we won’t get the chance to see how the Warriors respond to Howard’s critique until spring time – if at all.

(Video via CSN Bay Area)

What do you think?

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