Eric Gordon Not Over Rockets Heartbreaking Game 7 Loss To Warriors
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HOUSTON — The Houston Rockets have had several teams in the past who could have won an NBA championship. But no team in franchise history came as close as the 2017-18 Rockets.
The team set a franchise record of 65 wins, led by league MVP winner James Harden amid Chris Paul's first season in Houston.
The Rockets advanced to the 2018 Western Conference Finals before falling to the Golden State Warriors in seven games. But the series became synonymous with Houston's epic collapse by missing 27 straight 3-pointers on May 28.
Sunday marked the five-year anniversary of the Rockets' 101-92 bitter loss inside the Toyota Center. And during his guest appearance on The IkoSystem podcast, Eric Gordon revealed that he isn't over the heartbreak sustained.
"You only get so many chances to win a championship," Gordon said. "To have the chance to beat a team like that — you just never know. Sometimes when you win, you just don’t know how much that attracts other players around the league because we had a good thing going."
The elimination by the Warriors was the closest the Rockets came to adding a third Larry O'Brien Trophy since the franchise's Western Conference defeat to the Utah Jazz in 1997. And similar to their upset to the Jazz, sustaining the heartbreaking collapse led to the Rockets dismantling their corps nearly three years later.
"I think things would have been changed. I think the team would have been together — definitely more years," Gordon said. "I mean, winning a championship — that’s a big-time thing. There’s no doubt the guys would have been together."
Had the Rockets overthrown the Warriors, Houston would have met the Cleveland Cavaliers during the 2018 NBA Finals. LeBron James would have still averaged 34.0 points in the series. But the Finals would have likely ended with the Rockets winning their first title since 1995, perhaps in five games.
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