This is the fifth Eric Gordon vid I have made so far in the playoffs. For the whole regular season leading up to this, I made four. One of those was a 50-burger, which basically counts as two vids by itself, but still. What’s going on here? Gordon spends the entire season injured/sucking, and then comes into The Bubb and starts playing like the legit third option he used to be?
The long break while the league was shut down has hurt some players (like the whole Bucks team, oh my god I don’t know what to do this was our year bros THIS WAS OUR YEAR why why why), but it’s clear that some players really benefited. In normal years, the NBA regular season is a long, tiresome grind, and there’s a reason that players are getting rested; otherwise they come into the ‘offs operating at a fraction of their potential.
Gordon apparently used his time off to remember how to finish at the rim. It might have been better for him to remember how to shoot threes, given the Rockets’ general strategy, but finishing at the rim is in short supply for them after they ditched all their centers, so it’s still good. If he can re-find the touch that won him a three-point shootout a few years ago, well, the Lakers might as well start packing their bags. Yeah, I’m not overreacting to this game-one win at all.