Unlike last year, when they swept the San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference Finals, the Golden State Warriors endured a much tougher challenge to reach the NBA Finals this time around.
They came up against a determined and hungry Houston Rockets team who had openly stated that they were on a mission to end their dominance in the west.
The Rockets gave the defending champions their best shots but the Warriors lived up to their name and got back up from every blow.
Eventually, they were the ones left standing as they secured a fourth straight passage to the Finals with an impressive Game 7 victory on the road in Houston on Monday night.
The Dubs did get a huge slice of luck along the way as Chris Paul suffered a hamstring injury at the end of Game 5 where the Rockets had taken a 3-2 lead in the series and were on the brink of eliminating the men from the Bay Area.
"It sucks because you know you could win this series if we just had one more playmaker," Gordon said, via ESPN's Tim MacMahon. "If we had Chris, if he was out there, we'd have been playing on Thursday. It's just tough."
But Golden State had to deal with an injury of their own as Andre Iguodala missed the last four games with a knee injury.
His absence made a real difference and saw the Warriors squander a 2-1 lead to go down 3-2.
In response to Gordon's comments about Paul, Steve Kerr claimed that the series would never have reached seven games if Iguodala had remained healthy.
"We would have won the series in five if Iggy played," Kerr said, according to Reuters.
But with a quartet of All-Stars to call on, the reigning champs were in a much better position to deal with an injury than the Rockets were.
Houston acquired CP3 last summer to win a championship and he was a key presence in the series until he cruelly suffered another injury in the playoffs.
While Paul and the Rockets are left wondering "what if", the Warriors are preparing for a fourth consecutive meeting with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
They go into the clash as the overwhelming favourites and it will take a monumental effort by the Cavs to deny the Oakland-based franchise back-to-back titles.
CLICK HERE to listen to Episode Two of the new GiveMeSport NBA podcast, featuring New York Times senior writer Marc Stein. Subscribe for all future episodes.