It feels a bit like the Golden State Warriors are at the end of something following an epic seven-game bout with the up-and-coming Houston Rockets in the first round of the NBA playoffs, but it may be just the beginning. 

The Warriors completed the first step of their quest for a fifth title in 11 years by going on the road to Houston and stifling the young Rockets team, winning by a score of 103-89. 

Stephen Curry said during his postgame press conference that his brain was “fried” after the energy expended to get out of the first round. Unfortunately for Curry and the rest of his Golden State teammates, they’ll have very little time to rebound mentally, emotionally or physically before another war begins — this one with the Minnesota Timberwolves for the right to play in the Western Conference Finals.

The NBA released the series schedule just minutes after Game 7 went final, which Anthony Slater of The Athletic shared via social media. 

The opening tipoff in Minneapolis is scheduled for 9:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday, May 6 — less than 48 hours after the final whistle in Houston Sunday night. And it won’t get any easier for a Warriors roster led by Stephen Curry (age 37), Jimmy Butler (age 35) and Draymond Green (age 35) as the series progresses. 

“Here is the series schedule for Warriors and Timberwolves,” Slater wrote on X. “It opens on Tuesday night in Minnesota and has only one day off between Games 1 through 5.”

The truncated schedule undoubtedly favors the younger Timberwolves — not just because of the age of their stars compared to the age of the Warriors’ stars, but because Minnesota has home court advantage as the No. 6 seed and because they dispatched the Los Angeles Lakers in just five games. 

The Timberwolves last played on April 30 in L.A. and will be coming off of six days rest into Game 1 on Tuesday night. Minnesota opened as 5.5-point favorites over Golden State in that contest, per ESPN BET.