Eric Gordon: Scores 19 points in team debut

Gordon finished the night as the Rockets’ second-leading scorer after James Harden (34 points) and turned in a respectable shooting percentage, but his poor mark from three-point range proved costly on a night when Houston shot 7-for-29 (24.1%) as a team from distance. The 27-year-old’s 38.2 percent career mark from three-point land suggests that better days are ahead, and he and Ryan Anderson (14 points) should be locked into prominent roles all season as Harden’s sidekicks. With the Rockets expected to play at one of the league’s faster paces, that should translate to plenty of shot attempts for all three players, potentially putting all on course for career-best seasons.