Those of us who had the Under in Game 1 of this series know we should have cashed instead of either lost or pushed due to the Rockets unnecessary fouling at the end when the outcome already was decided.

Under was the right play in the opener and it remains the right play at this current number for Game 2 today.

Nothing has changed except the Rockets should be playing more intense and smarter defense after giving up 119 points. The Warriors deserved their point total. They played well in transition, took advantage of Houston's sloppy ballhandling and received a lot of open looks.

Houston is capable of playing much better defense. Only five teams allowed fewer points per game than the Rockets during the season. It was a bad break for the Under when Trevor Ariza was limited to less than 24 minutes because of foul trouble. He's a much superior defensive player to his replacements, Ryan Anderson and Gerald Green.

The Rockets aren't going to push pace so much. They have too much first-hand respect now for the Warriors' devastating transition game. Golden State put up 18 points just on fast-break points.

The Warriors are underrated defensively. Only two teams had a better defensive field goal percentage than the Warriors during the regular season. Draymond Green is one of the top five defensive players in the NBA. He should play smarter, too, knowing he's not going to get calls in Houston. There was no reason for him to get that early technical foul during Game 1 when he purposely bumped into James Harden when Harden was just trying to return up-court.

The five stars - Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Harden and Chris Paul - were all hot shooting a combined 52.4 percent from the floor. I don't see all of them being as hot for a second straight game.