[Feigen] Gordon is back (with article)

Eric Gordon could once again happily look forward to shooting All Star weekend 3-pointers in New Orleans. He could make plans to practice grabbing balls off a rack and firing away. He could joke that he would accept some advice from James Harden, but within limits because he wants to win it.

Mostly, Gordon returned to the Rockets practice on Tuesday, brushing off concerns that his sore back could be a recurring problem, with confidence that the issue was "just a little, minor thing."

As much as the Rockets have seemed to have righted themselves, winning their past four games heading into the final game before the All Star break, little could be considered a more important development than being able to consider Gordon's back issue minor.

The Rockets have won without him, going 4-2 in the games Gordon has missed. But with a win against the Miami Heat on Wednesday, the Rockets would not only match last season's total of 41, they would match the 1993-94 Rockets for the best record in franchise history through 58 games.

That's enough to revise goals to be a legitimate contender, an aspiration that requires all hands on deck, with their second-leading scorer near the top of the list.

"It's fine," Gordon said. "I've dealt with this before. It's something not really to worry about at all. So far, everything's going in the right direction to trying to play. We'll try out everything and see how it feels on the court."​

The greater concern than just having Gordon back to face the Heat is that he remains on the floor when the season resumes Feb. 23 in New Orleans. Gordon had missed two games when the back tightened in warmups in Boston Jan. 25, with the Rockets believing he had been favoring a sprained ankle and toe, leading to the back issues. When he was sore again, forcing him to miss two games last week, the problem could have seemed more serious and potentially ongoing.

Gordon, however, said the issue was nowhere as severe as in the first two games he missed and Rockets coach Mike D'Antoni had described holding Gordon out as precautionary.

"I don't think it'll be ongoing," said Gordon, who has averaged 17.3 points this season. "Just a little, minor thing I had to deal with the past couple days. I'm just glad it's heading in the right direction. Hopefully, I'll get past it and move on."​

After Wednesday, he will move on to New Orleans – where he spent five seasons – and the pursuit of the first 3-point competition win for a Rockets player. For now, the Rockets would like to see a few 3s fall against the Heat. Their previous game against the Heat showed how important he can be, with Gordon going 3 of 17 in the loss. (Ryan Anderson missed that game with the flu, and after a scare on Sunday when he gashed his right thumb, he was cleared to play Wednesday.)

Even with the Rockets' relative success without Gordon, his absences seemed to point to a lack of depth at the position, with D'Antoni extending the playing time of players already in the rotation, rather than calling on another player off the bench.

"Obviously, you're much better when you're at full strength," Rockets assistant coach Jeff Bzdelik said on Tuesday with D'Antoni out sick. "Our guys have done a great job making sure we didn't miss a beat when Eric was gone for the most part. Everyone's getting paid. Everyone needs to do a job when called upon.​

"He's so explosive. Obviously, those four 3s a game, that's 12 points. It's a big impact when he's not there for us. And he defends well."​

With Gordon back, the Rockets expected to be at full strength going into the break, giving them a chance to build momentum they lacked when injuries began in the final game of their 10-game winning streak in December and again when they had a nine-game streak a month later.

The Rockets had three off days since their last game, Saturday's win against Phoenix and don't play a back-to-back until March 17 and 18. With Gordon seemingly over his back issues, they hoped to make their current run of four-consecutive wins the start of a late-season push.

"It's going to be great," Gordon said. "We have this one game before break. After the break, we have a lot of home games to figure out what we need to do for the playoffs. It's a great time. We feel we put ourselves in a great position early on in the season, being the third seed. We're trying to be higher. All we have to do is maintain health, and focus on the things we need to do."​

 

Don't you have any imagination joomba.

We need to showcase him for a trade.