Robert Covington did not have a good time of it in the regular season Bubble games. Much like this teammate Eric Gordon, who was a walking pair of butt cheeks for those extra eight seeding games, Covington spent most of his time on the court bricking threes. The numbers are staggeringly bad: 13 of 56 from deep, good for 23%. He woke up a bit in the playoffs, shooting 40% on three-point attempts before tonight, and now he’s added six more three-pointers to his total, helping Rockets fans forget how much of a butt cheek he had been for the previous few weeks. The Rockets really wanted this win over the Thunder to retake the advantage in the series, and Covington (partially) gave it to them.
Normally I would blame Covington’s chicken legs for this substandard shooting accuracy. After all, having ridiculously skinny legs is a known factor for being unable to shoot consistently. The chickenier your legs are, the quicker they tire out, and the quicker you lose lift on your jumpers. I would know since my legs are like hairy flesh-colored twigs, and I purposely barely jump on my jumpers in order to save leg energy. If I try to properly jump on my jumpshot, it works for about five minutes before I’m cramping up and calling for a medic.
But there may have been more at play than just chronically undersized leg muscles. Covington could also be struggling to adapt to a team where he is asked to do nothing but shoot threes on offense.
Wait, that’s the whole point of his existence: shoot threes. For Covington’s career, 63% of his attempts have been from three, so there’s no reason for him not to be thriving in this role. The Rockets were the perfect situation for him to land in when he got traded from the Timberpuppies. Maybe he started taking shooting tips from Russell Westbrook, or something.