Eric Gordon believes Rockets are only team that can contend with Warriors

The Rockets took the Warriors to seven games in the 2018 Western Conference Finals

The Golden State Warriors currently sit atop the Western Conference standings and could be the top seed once the postseason tips off in April.

There certainly are several very talented teams in the West, but Eric Gordon believes that the Houston Rockets might be best suited to take down the defending champions, per Marc Stein of The New York Times.

As for Gordon, when asked if he thought the Warriors saw Houston as their foremost challenger, there was zero hesitation.

"They have to," Gordon said. "We're a lot smaller than last year — we're a different team — but we match up well with them. I really do believe there's no other team but us that can really have a chance against them."

Gordon and the Rockets are certainly familiar with the Warriors after the two teams faced off in the Western Conference Finals last season. In fact, Houston came within one win of dethroning Golden State and reached the NBA Finals. 

One of the biggest reasons that didn't come to fruition could be attributed to the fact that Chris Paul missed the final two games of the series due to a hamstring injury. If Paul would've been healthy, perhaps Game 7 would've been a lot closer and potentially would have featured the Rockets coming out on top.

However, in the end, the Warriors came away with a 101-92 victory over the Rockets on that night and Houston only received three points from their second unit.

The Western Conference definitely has a great deal of talent at the top with the Denver Nuggets and Oklahoma City Thunder posing a significant threat to the defending champions, in addition to the Rockets. After getting off to an 11-14 start this season, the Rockets have risen all the way to the No. 3 seed in the conference, with a 42-25 record, and sit just 3.5 games out of the top playoff spot.

Gordon certainly appears to be very confident in the team that the Rockets currently have in place. Considering that they have won nine consecutive games heading into Wednesday night's showdown at the Toyota Center, and nearly won their series against the Warriors last postseason, this opinion could be something that Houston will get to prove down the road as we move closer to the NBA Finals.