OAKLAND, Calif. -- One team had nothing to lose. One team had everything to lose. From the tip-off of Saturday night's Game 6 of the Western Conference finals, it didn't take a body language expert to figure out which one was which.

The Rockets played free, loose and confident without their second-best player and floor leader, Chris Paul, comforted by the fact that even with a loss, they'd have one more shot to knock off the defending champion Warriors at home in Game 7. And just like that, as the Oracle crowd mumbled and grumbled and fidgeted in their expensive seats, Houston fired on all cylinders and built a 17-point lead to end the first quarter.

James Harden dispelled any notion that he shrinks in big games by thoroughly dominating the floor, orchestrating the offense, finding wide-open shooter after wide-open shooter, and loudly snapping out of his 0-for-22 3-point shooting slump on his way to 32 points.

Meanwhile, the Warriors looked like seventh graders on their first day at a new school -- confused, nervous and awkward. They weren't exactly pressing, but it wasn't pretty. Players were running into each other, they were passing the ball to the wrong team, and with every missed shot the reality of their four-year run ending on a sour note became more and more evident.

"It seemed to me we were in a big rush," Warriors coach Steve Kerr said after the game. "We were passing up layups to try to shoot 3s in transition. We were launching 3s just without a thought of maybe getting a better shot."

But we all knew this couldn't last. As great as the Rockets looked in the first half -- they held a 10-point lead at the break -- we knew sooner or later the upset bid would come to the inevitable end --  a 115-86 Warriors win.

Led by Klay Thompson who was having what the locals like to call a "Klay game," the Warriors came out of the locker room with an 8-0 run, sparking perhaps the most dramatic home-crowd turnaround in sports history. In a matter of minutes, the doom-and-gloom faces and posture erupted into the familiar exuberance, swagger and arrogance that defines the Oracle faithful. The Rockets called timeout, and you would think the Warriors were up by 30. They were down by two.

The third-quarter run, a staple at Oracle Arena, was fueled by a Draymond Green halftime speech evoking the words of the late, great John Wooden: Be quick, but don't hurry.

"He just told me to slow down," Stephen Curry said. "You want a game so bad, and the energy in the building and how we were trying to claw our way back into it defensively -- that affected my offensive game. I was just rushing a little bit, not being decisive with my shots. It was a nice little pep talk, get my confidence."

Slowly but surely the Warriors' talent won out. Klay kept on hitting 3s, and Stephen Curry put on a show with some dazzling moves that resulted in both layups and deep balls. Kevin Durant provided some much-needed rim protection and his steady, metronomic offense as Golden State's lead ballooned from five to 10 to 20.

It was the result we expected. We just took a couple detours along the way.

Houston, particularly Harden and Eric Gordon, who shouldered the load of the playmaking with Paul sidelined, predictably ran out of gas as the game went on. The defensive rotations got a little slower, the corner 3s started falling short and the Warriors picked up the pace, exacerbating the Rockets' exhaustion.

It makes you wonder whether Paul would have been enough to keep the Rockets' foot on the gas pedal once they had the lead, but you can't play that game. Instead we look to Game 7, our second of the conference finals, and wonder whether Paul will play and whether the Warriors can keep the momentum they built in Game 6.

It's telling, however, that what used to be a foregone conclusion -- the Warriors making the NBA Finals -- is now legitimately up in the air. And I think we'd all agree that we're better for it.

"We know how to play well in that building," Curry said of Game 7 at the Toyota Center. "Just got to be laser focused from the jump. I guarantee if we start the game out like we did tonight, and they jump out to a lead, it's gonna be 10 times harder to try to make it a game. For us, that's our challenge."