Golden State Warriors managed to overcome Houston Rockets in the Western Conference Finals’ Game 7 and secured their fourth straight trip to the NBA Finals. But, that shouldn’t have been the case according to Rockets’ Eric Gordon who thinks his team would win the series if they had Chris Paul in Game 7. Paul missed last two games of the series due to a strained right hamstring.
“It sucks because you know you could win this series if we just had one more playmaker,” – said Gordon on Monday night after Rockets’ 101-92 loss to Warriors. “If we had Chris, if he was out there, we’d have been playing on Thursday. It’s just tough.“
It isn’t like Houston Rockets didn’t have a chance to win the game without Paul. They entered the second half of the Game 7 being 11 points ahead but had to watch their lead melting in the third quarter when they managed to score only 15 points compared to Warriors’ 33. It is also worth noting that the Rockets went ice cold from three-point range, hitting 7 out of their 44 attempts, which included missing 27 straight three-pointers in one period.
“That’s what C.P. was so good at in two [of the] games we won,” – said Rockets’ coach Mike D’Antoni about the Warriors’ dominance in the third quarter. “They’d make a little run, he’d hit a 3. They make another run, and he makes another play. And you have to have those momentum changers and stoppers, and the last two games, we didn’t have them.“
In the series against the Warriors, Chris Paul averaged 19.8 points, 4.6 rebounds, 6.8 assists and 1.8 steals per game.
