Warriors vs. Rockets, 2015 NBA Playoffs: Time, TV schedule and live stream for Western Conference Finals Game 2

Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals between the Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets gave basketball fans pretty much what they want to see: a showdown of big plays by the league's All-NBA first team guards: Stephen Curry and James Harden.

While Harden tried to steal the show in the fourth quarter with a number of extremely difficult jumpers in isolation sets, Curry ultimately emerged victorious with a game-high 34 points on 13-for-22 shooting including six threes. The Warriors' bench did come up big in Game 1, but the biggest challenge for both teams will be figuring out how to contain — certainly not "stop" — the All-NBA first team guards on the floor.

Coach Nick of BBALLBREAKDOWN did a pretty good job of detailing how each team approached defending a MVP candidate, including an interesting graphic breaking down who defended each shot from the big stars — Klay Thompson gave up seven of Harden's 11 makes, but they were so difficult that it's hard to really criticize Thompson for how he defended those shots. Defending Harden is especially difficult because of the frequency and way he draws fouls in addition to his ability to hit jumpers off the dribble, but I thought Coach Nick did a good job of laying out the blueprint for getting the job done (as well as possible) in his breakdown of Game 7 of the Western Conference Semifinals: J.J. Redick of the L.A. Clippers did a good job of staying in front of him and putting his hands straight up to avoid get caught on any of Harden's attempts to draw fouls. Harden did have 31 points that game, but many of those were off of transition points off of turnovers — Redick did his job for the most part.

One of the things that Coach Nick did mention for both Redick and Thompson is the fatigue that goes along with guarding Harden all game. Defending Harden all game could wear down Thompson by the end of the series, limiting what he could possibly offer on offense. The question is just about who will get more looks on Harden as any change would affect the rotations and matchups overall.

On the other end of things, Coach Nick highlighted how the Rockets really struggled with defending Curry off of any type of screen. A lot of that is due to Andrew Bogut's ability to help direct the offense and set screens off the ball — Rockets fans and players are complaining about those screens, but those were pretty standard Bogut screens in Game 1.

That's actually a lot of mention of fouls and officiating; without criticizing the refs, it's probably fair to say that the refs will play a role in the outcome of this series: if Harden gets all of the fouls he attempts to draw, Warriors defenders are going to be in trouble and/or sitting on the bench for long stretches. If refs finally do call Bogut for illegal screens — we have to be honest about the fact that he does this all the time and thankful that he gets away with it — the Warriors might suffer on both ends, as one of the league's top defenders could find himself on the bench with foul trouble a little quicker than usual.

If either team can figure out how to stop those two MVP candidates and get favorable calls, Game 2 will probably look very different.

Who: Golden State Warriors (1-0) vs. Houston Rockets (0-1)

What: Game 2, Western Conference Finals, 2015 NBA Playoffs

When: 6:00 p.m. PST

Where: Oracle Arena -- Oakland, CA

How to watch:

• National: ESPN

• Online: ESPN3.com

Radio: ESPN Radio