If Boogie plays like this, Houston and the West have big problems

HOUSTON -- No regular-season game means all that much for a couple of rivals that played seven games in the Western Conference finals last season.

So nobody wanted to jump to any grand conclusions after Golden State Warriors held on for a 106-104 win Wednesday over the Houston Rockets, a team that has established themselves over the last two seasons as the two-time defending champions' primary challengers.

"We didn't learn nothing that we didn't already know," guard Chris Paul said after the Rockets' nine-game winning streak was snapped and any realistic hope of catching the Warriors for the West's top seed was extinguished. "We done played them enough times where they know us, and we know…