The Houston Rockets are the two-seed in the Western Conference, but they are on the brink of elimination in the first round of the NBA playoffs. The Rockets dropped Game 4 against the Golden State Warriors on Monday night, and they are now down 3-1 in the series. One thing is certain: If Houston is going to miraculously make a comeback in this series, it will need better play from Jalen Green.

Jalen Green had 38 points in Game 2, and that is the only game that the Rockets have won. In the other three games, he hasn't reached double figures. In Charles Barkley's words, “that can't happen.”

“I said before the game, before you can become a great player, you got to do other stuff to help your team,” Barkley said of Green after Game 4. “Like he gets in a fog when he's not scoring, and he's just out. Think about that this guy, who we're bragging about all season, is going to be close to making the All-Star team. He's had single digits three out of four, had 38 one game, and he's had single digits the other three games. That can't happen, that cannot happen. He's not that young. He had 38 a game ago. You can't go from 38 to eight. You can go from 38 to 20 or 24. You can't go single digits.”

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Kenny Smith remembers three things that he would focus on every game to make sure that he was in the best position for success, and he thinks that Green needs to have a similar system.

“For a guy like myself, or a guy like Jalen, who's trying to get to that level, I always said you have to come to the arena knowing that you're going to do three things, regardless of what's going to happen,” Smith said. “So my three things was, okay, I'm gonna pressure the ball. I'm gonna push the ball from free throw line to free throw line as fast as I can. And when I don't have the ball and it goes inside, I'm sprinting to the opening shot, the three. So every night, I just knew those three things could be consistent. And I think that when I look at Jalen, he has much more offensive things in his tool belt than myself or guys that I'm talking about, but he should come to the arena and say these three things I'm going to do, regardless of what happens.”

Jalen Green has to be better if the Rockets are going to find a way to make this series interesting. They will look to fight off elimination on Wednesday night back at home. The two teams will get underway at 6:30 CT from the Toyota Center in Houston, and the game will be airing on TNT, truTV and Max. The Rockets are currently favored by 4.5 points.