OAKLAND — Fresh off a record-breaking 73-9 regular season, the Warriors enter the playoffs not thinking too much about recent history. Warriors coach Steve Kerr said that among the team there hasn’t been discussion about 73 wins.

The focus is on James Harden and the Houston Rockets, who the Warriors face in Game 1 of a first-round Western Conference playoff series at Oracle Arena on Saturday.

And despite the Warriors having defeated the Rockets in 12 of their past 13 meetings including the Western Conference finals when they won the series in five games, those past performances are not what they’re hanging their hats on, either.

“I think for any team it’d be a daunting task to face a team you’re (1-12) against,” Warriors guard Klay Thompson said of the Rockets on Friday. “But at the same time, all that goes out the window. It’s a new season. That’s a clean slate, 0-0 right now.

“We can’t look back in the past and just be depending on that.”

Stephen Curry, after dazzling in the regular-season finale Wednesday with enough 3-pointers to reach 402 for the season, now gets a large dose of defense from top Rockets perimeter defender Patrick Beverley, who missed last season’s playoff series due to injury.

“He’s just relentless,” Kerr said of Beverley. “He’s a guy that can get under your skin. He’s quick. He’s strong. He just stays after it.”

Said Rockets interim coach J.B. Bickerstaff of Curry: “If he’s able to run freely in space, he’s too good. So you’ve got to be in his airspace all night long. He’s got to know at the end of the night that whoever was guarding him was there.”

Curry’s eyes lit up when asked if he likes such a defensive challenge, and he described Beverley similarly to the way Kerr did. But it’s defense, according to the reigning MVP, that has been the key to the Warriors’ success against the Rockets.

The Warriors will need to step up on that end of the floor while facing Harden, the NBA’s No 2 scorer behind Curry, averaging 29 points per game.

Harden takes over games on offense and is adept at drawing fouls. Kerr noted that Harden led the league in free-throw attempts by far, as the All-Star had 837 of them — 174 more than the runner-up.

“You can’t reach,” said Thompson, who will be the main defender on Harden. “You’ve got to stay disciplined and go straight up. Definitely don’t reach on him. You’ve got to lock in every possession. You can’t relax. He can score in bunches.”

Said Bickerstaff: “People see him getting to the free-throw line, people think it’s flopping. But James, he’s figured it out. There’s an art to what he does. He’s found the loophole in the rules.”

Harden said the eighth-seeded Rockets are confident going into the series. They disappointed with a 41-41 record, and saw coach Kevin McHale fired in midseason. But Harden didn’t back down when asked about facing a 73-win team to start the playoffs.

“That’s what basketball’s about,” Harden said with a laugh. “You’ve got to face them anyways no matter whether it’s first round or Western Conference finals. We’ve got a great opportunity, a lot of people counting us out.”

The Warriors, meanwhile, are embracing the expectations and pressure that come with being the favorites to win it all and repeat as champions.

First they’ll have to get past the upset-minded Rockets, who are looking for payback after the Warriors stopped them short of the NBA Finals.

“You can’t take ’em lightly,” Thompson said. “They got there last year for a reason. Same core, almost the same entire roster. So they’ve got talent, and they can really score the ball, and we’ve just got to act like it’s do or die.”

For more on the Warriors, see the Inside the Warriors blog at www.ibabuzz.com/warriors. Follow Diamond Leung on Twitter at twitter.com/diamond83.