So they’re done with the preliminaries, past the previews, beyond the tune-ups, and are hurtling towards the Big Bang Western Conference finals matchup against Houston.



This feels like the real start of the Warriors season, the toughest test and the most climactic chapter, all at once.



Or as owner Joe Lacob put it after the Warriors’ 113-104 Game 5 victory over New Orleans on Tuesday at Oracle Arena that clinched this series:



“Now it begins.”



Lacob said this with a smile that suggested he was half-joking, and the Warriors have gone to great pains to pay proper respect to their first two opponents in this postseason — San Antonio in the first round, and then New Orleans in the second.



But now the music swells and the plot deepens, because the Warriors have been waiting a while for the Houston Rockets, and the Houston Rockets have made it more than clear that they’ve been waiting even longer for the...