The Houston Rockets dropped to 11-13 after an embarrassing 118-91 loss to the Utah Jazz, who played 45-plus minutes without defensive stalwart Rudy Gobert due to an early ejection. Shooting guard Eric Gordon, the Sixth Man of the Year just two seasons ago, has seen just how different it has been for him and his teammates throughout this initial stretch of the 2018-19 campaign — going from a league-leading 65-win season to 13th in a merciless Western Conference.
“I’m just not having fun man,” said Gordon after a second consecutive loss, according to Kelly Iko of The Athletic. “I’m just not. This sucks. Even the times where I have good games. We’re just not using some guys the right way. Are we gonna make the right sacrifices? Do we have the right attitude?
“Last year was the best year I’ve ever had being a part of a team,” he added. “We just never had a bad moment. If we ever had a bad game as a team, you knew the next game we would blow somebody out. It didn’t matter who it was.”
This is not a shocker for most people watching the Rockets this season. The offense just does not have the same fluidity to it, and Houston is struggling to get a good chemistry going, playing a limited number of rotation players and no longer boasting the high-octane cohesiveness that propelled them to the Western Conference Finals.
The losses of Trevor Ariza, Luc Mbah A Moute and Ryan Anderson have been mentioned time and time again, something Gordon doesn’t want to go into, but can’t help himself to do so given the nature of their situation.
“We can’t compare this team to last year, because we’ve had a lot of changes,” said Gordon. “More young guys, we just have to look forward to what’s next.
“Look how they’re playing, that’s how we used to play. Sharing the ball, getting up and down and attacking. We’re not doing that anymore.”
The Rockets are only 1.5 games away from the eighth seed, but given the West is the toughest it has been in two decades of basketball through the quarter mark of the season, they’re likely to encounter more problems down the road unless they figure something out pronto.
Losing has already gotten to players’ heads — and to see a veteran like Eric Gordon put it in perspective is only that much more alarming considering the stiff competition surrounding them in the West.
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