Mike D'Antoni: Game 6 Loss to Warriors 'Is Not Something You Just Get Over'

The Houston Rockets were still licking their wounds inflicted by losing to the Golden State Warriors last season in a seven-game Western Conference Finals when the Warriors marched back into Houston's Toyota Center Friday night and, without an injured Kevin Durant, defeated the Rockets 118-113 in Game 6 of the Western Conference semis to end Houston's season.

After the defeat, Rockets head coach Mike D'Antoni made clear that his team will remember this loss for some time.

"Well, this one's gonna leave a mark," he said to reporters on ESPN. "This is not something you just get over with."

D'Antoni took over as Houston's head coach in 2016 with the immediate expectation of contending for the franchise's first championship since 1994-95. As much as falling just short for the third year in a row hurts, the 68-year-old made no excuses. 

"First of all, they're champions," he said. "They come in here down a man, but the way they shot the ball and the way they played, they're smart. And that's why they've won rings, and we've got to get there somehow."

D'Antoni added that his team didn't play its best despite reigning MVP James Harden scoring 35 points—including six threes—alongside Chris Paul's 27 points and 11 rebounds.

The sting of this loss will linger particularly because Stephen Curry was held scoreless through the first half, and the Rockets still failed to pull away before Curry took over the game with a career-high 33-point second half and 23 in the fourth quarter alone.

Moving forward, D'Antoni simply stated that he and his squad "have to gather ourselves this summer, get the core group and bust it next year."

While D'Antoni reasoned that the team's core is still young, the Rockets measured out as the league's oldest team in an Oct. 28 NBA roster survey with an average age of 28.6 years old.

Paul just turned 34 years old on May 6, while Harden will turn 30 in August.