Why is Eric Gordon not playing tonight against Knicks? Latest injury update for Suns guard (Dec. 16)
The Phoenix Suns are looking to bounce back from a tough loss against the Brooklyn Nets and they will be missing a few other players including Eric Gordon. The 35-year-old shooter has been a starter for the Suns and he is said to take a backseat in this upcoming game against the New York Knicks.
Gordon, who was seen shooting early at the Footprint Center, has been scratched by the team right before tip-off. According to coach Frank Vogel, the veteran guard felt some discomfort and wanted to check if he could play through it.
Furthermore, the Suns will be without Damion Lee and Josh Okogie who are also nursing some injuries.
At the start of the season, the Suns' big three of Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal have been in and out of the roster and it was only in their last game they got to play together for the first time since pre-season.
Filling in the starting role when either Booker or Beal was out was Eric Gordon, who started 16 of the 21 games that he played. He has given the Suns some potent scoring with 14.2 points and dropped 2.7 3-pointers per game.
Right now, the Phoenix Suns hold a 13-11 record from their first 24 games and are 10th in the NBA Western Conference standings. They play the Washington Wizards next on Dec. 17.
Eric Gordon laments missed opportunity to advance to 2018 NBA Finals
The Golden State Warriors with Kevin Durant has been a formidable force in the NBA during their time together. The only thing that was able to stop them were injuries.
But during the NBA Conference Finals in 2018, the Houston Rockets forced a Game 7 and had the prime opportunity to pull out a series upset over the reigning champions.
However, 27 missed 3-point shots were the story of the game, and Eric Gordon, who was teamed up with Chris Paul and James Harden, felt that they had a really good chance of winning Game 7:
“I'm not gonna lie, for one, I didn't even notice we missed that many,” Eric Gordon said in JJ Redick's podcast. “We were still in the game so it really didn't really feel … You know how some guys when you take that many threes because we took a lot of threes in Houston, like you would feel it. You'd be down 20 points, or … or you couldn't score.
"We knew that all we needed was a couple of threes and then it would propel us to probably winning but we were still in the game so you really couldn't feel it.”
The Golden State Warriors went on to reach the NBA Finals and were able to sweep the Cleveland Cavaliers, 4-0.