Eric Gordon: ‘Defense has been our strongest part of the game’

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Eric Gordon, the Clippers’ shooting guard and a reserve on Team USA, is a guest blogger for the Fabulous Forum during the FIBA World Championship tournament in Turkey. Gordon made five of six three-point shots and scored 17 points in a 121-66 victory over Angola to help the Americans advance to the quarterfinals. Here are some impressions from Gordon following the victory:

We started fast, hitting three-pointers and playing good defense, and we kept it going the whole game. Kevin Durant and Chauncey Billups started knocking down shots and everyone was able to just keep knocking down the shots. It was mainly a field day from there. It was good to see them start well.

Defense has been our strongest part of the game. We’ve stayed focused on defense and really got after Angola. They really use a lot of guard play like you see in the NBA, playing one-on-one, and we just had to play good defense against them on the perimeter.

We forced some turnovers and were able to keep it a fast-paced game. My shot felt good and now I’m just trying to keep the rhythm and do what the team needs from me, either on defense or offense. We have to maintain that effort for the next three games and we’ll get the gold.

We’ll play the winner of Russia and New Zealand. Russia is favored, from what I hear, but we just focused on Angola, so we haven’t prepared much for whomever we face next. Now that we’ve got this win, we’ll begin to focus on our next opponent.

Now it’s time to get our rest and practice hard. If we continue to execute and improve like we have in the tournament, we should be able to bring home the gold.

-- Eric Gordon