Eric Gordon needs to be better to defeat the Warriors

The sixth man for the Rockets will need to be a key contributor for the team if they want to take down the Warriors.

Throughout the postseason, Eric Gordon has been pretty disappointing for the Houston Rockets. He wasn’t fantastic last year and he has been even worse this year.

He is averaging just 12.9 points per game on 31% shooting from deep, a percentage that a great shooter like Gordon should never have. EG is also shooting just 38% on 2-point attempts, way down from his 54% in the regular season.

He definitely has time to turn it all around, though, and the Rockets will need him if they want to beat the Warriors.

Let’s look at some ways that an improved EG can help the Rockets:

Lead the better bench unit

Eric Gordon is the best player off the bench for the Rockets. He is someone who could be starting on many different teams and who can destroy the opposing bench.

He can do just that against the Warriors.

The Rockets, when you look at it, have the better bench and need to exploit that. If Gordon is in his normal form and hitting shots, that could be devastating for Golden State.

The field goal percentage from 2 is also worrying and should improve. He has been driving to the basket around the same amount of times per game but with less success. Look for him to start getting some friendly rolls in the Conference Finals.

The Rockets need his scoring

The Golden State Warriors are the only team that the Rockets will face that can score at the same frequency as them. In the regular season, Eric Gordon was a huge part of that for Houston. To match the dynamic scorers in Golden State, he’ll need to return to form.

The Warriors have 3 guys who can get their own shot and average a high amount of points per game. The Rockets, when EG is playing well, can match that. That will be huge for Houston.

He’s shown some flashes

Eric Gordon has shown a few flashes of his regular season form in this playoffs. In Game 3 against Utah, he dropped 25 points very efficiently and was a huge reason why the Rockets won.

His last two games against the Timberwolves were good and fairly efficient as well. The Rockets definitely need that Eric Gordon.

Let’s hope he brings his A game against the defending champs.

Next: Chris Paul earned his paycheck in Game 5, and then some