NBA: Ranking top return games from 2019-20 season

Oct. 28: Oklahoma City Thunder at Houston Rockets

Chris Paul was supposed to be the missing piece that was going to help the Houston Rockets challenge the Dubs for conference supremacy, but things didn’t go according to plan during his time in Houston.

In 2017-18, the Rockets finished with the best record in the league and advanced to the Western Conference finals. They even had a 3-2 lead over the Warriors in that series.

CP3 went down with a hamstring late in Game 5 and was forced into the role of spectator the rest of the way. Subsequently, the Warriors went on to win that series in seven games.

Unfortunately, it was more of the same last season. Facing the Warriors in the playoffs for the fourth time in five seasons, the Rockets failed to capitalize on Kevin Durant going down with an injury in Game 5 of the conference semifinals.

Even with the two-time Finals MVP on the bench, the Warriors won that series in six games. It is also worth mentioning that Paul didn’t have a great season, either.

His scoring (15.6 points per contest) was the lowest output of his career. Paul also shot a career-worst 41.9 percent from the field.

The four-year, $160 million contract he signed to stay with the Rockets seemed immovable, but apparently that wasn’t the case, as Houston dealt him the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for Russell Westbrook, two future first-round picks and a pair of pick swaps in 2021 and 2025.

It isn’t even a certainty that CP3 will be on the Thunder roster by the time this game rolls around.

But if that is the case, he will want to show the Rockets and the rest of his critics that he can still be a solid contributor for on an NBA roster.