They had "Golden State Warriors" stitched across their chests. The names and numbers on the back of the jerseys seemed to be correct. But in the first half of the most important game of the Warriors' season, the team was unrecognizable.

They didn't just look bad in the first half -- they looked atrocious. While the Rockets played like desperate wolves, scratching and clawing for every last morsel of carrion to ensure their survival for one day more, the Warriors looked like the chicken from "Moana" had just naively wandered into the Toyota Center in a pair of sneakers.

"It was really one of the most bizarre first halves of basketball that we've played since I've been here," Warriors coach Steve Kerr said after the game. "We were so scattered, you know, every part of the gameplan went out the window in the first 45 seconds basically.

"... I walked in at halftime, I said, 'I don't even recognize this team.' We've been together for four years. I didn't recognize the group that we were seeing."

But because this is Golden State, the team that just two nights earlier did pretty much THE EXACT SAME THING, we knew why the urgency wasn't there. If you had just thrown away the first half of Game 6, an elimination game, only to come back and win by 29, you'd probably have the same mindset. We'll turn it on. It'll be there when we need it.

As we watched the first half on Monday, we tried to convince ourselves that this time would be different -- that the Warriors were playing with fire by relying on their trademark third-quarter run, and that perhaps with the pressure of Game 7 on the road, their blasé first-half effort would finally catch up to them.

Nope.

Twenty-four minutes of basketball later, and the Warriors were setting up their date with the Cavaliers after a 101-92 win, a box score that will forever serve as an injustice to just how close this Houston team was to taking down their primary target -- their only target.

The absence of Chris Paul was sorely felt as the Rockets' reliably fertile 3-point ground suddenly turned barren and sour. They missed an NBA playoff record 27 consecutive 3-pointers between the second and fourth quarters. No, that's not a typo. They were 0 for 14 in the third quarter alone.

Meanwhile the Warriors did what the Warriors do. Stephen Curry scored 14 points in three minutes to carry his team from down three to up nine with two minutes left in the third. All the undermanned, fatigued Rockets could do was continue to hoist 3-pointers, hoping that the Warriors would eventually catch a cold spell as bad as theirs. That never happened.

As frustrating as it was to watch the Warriors come out of the gate in Game 7 looking like they'd never played basketball before, we had no reason to think it would go any other way. They used this formula consistently during the regular season, letting inferior teams hang around before launching an all-out assault in the third quarter. They even backslid into the playoffs and lost the No. 1 seed, with many suggesting that they didn't have the hunger and energy to compete for a third title in four years.

Maybe it's as simple as a team not being able to sustain that level of intensity for 48 minutes, so they subconsciously dial it back in the first half. Throughout the regular season, some Warriors players suggested that teams keep things close in the first half because they're so fired up to play them, but eventually they get worn down.

Whatever the reason might be, the question remains: Can the Warriors get away with this kind of switch-flipping against LeBron James?

It's a funny proposition, since just a year ago LeBron's Cavs were accused of the same tactic -- letting quarters, even games slip away knowing that they could turn on the jets when they had to. Nobody will accuse Cleveland's vastly different roster of doing that this year -- LeBron might have his weakest supporting cast ever. And because of that, the Cavs are considered heavy underdogs against the Warriors in the fourth iteration of their yearly Finals saga.

Given the talent disparity, on paper the Warriors should have no problem letting Cleveland hang around until delivering the final death blow in the second half. But there's always the caveat -- the reason why the Cavs swept the No. 1-seeded Raptors after struggling to get past the Pacers in the first round, and the reason why they defeated a, by all accounts, superior Celtics team in the Eastern Conference finals.

LeBron. Raymone. James.

Against a mere mortal, you might be able to get away with the shenanigans the Warriors have been pulling. But LeBron has proven time and time again, particularly this postseason, that if you give him a window he will crash right through and steal your hearts. Not to mention the fact that LeBron has played this team in four consecutive years, creating the only playoff blemish on the Warriors' resume by coming back from 3-1 to defeat them in the 2016 Finals.

That being said, chances are that the Warriors will win this series, probably handily -- they defeated a vastly superior Cavs team last year in five games. But that could also cause Golden State to once again lack the necessary urgency from the get-go.

It's almost a guarantee that the Warriors will come out flat in at least a few of these games. The question is, can LeBron James and the Cavs stop them from getting away with it?