As many of y'all speculated after last night's game, Eric Gordon may not be at full strength yet, and John Reid confirmed as much in the Times-Pic yesterday:

Despite playing 16 games and emerging as the Hornets' second-leading scorer with a 16.4 average, Gordon is still not in the desired shape yet to play extended minutes.

"I came back not at 100 percent," Gordon said. "I was nowhere near in shape, I'm still not at 100 percent today. I'm still just battling through it."

According to team officials, there is no set timetable when Gordon will begin playing back-to-back games for the first time since returning Dec 29. With the All-Star break approaching next week, Hornets Coach Monty Williams also doesn't know when Gordon will be taken off his minutes-per-game restrictions set by team doctors designed to avoid having him play more than 35 minutes a game.

It's interesting to learn some of the specifics behind Gordon's minutes and games restrictions. As I've mentioned a couple times before, I think the team holding Gordon out of back-to-backs definitely bodes well in terms of where they see Gordon fitting in long term.

The article goes on to talk a little bit about Gordon's back spasms; if that becomes a consistent thing, Gordon's health outlook becomes a lot murkier.