After initially being ruled out for Game 5 due to his quad injury, Rockets guard Russell Westbrook was upgraded to questionable today, as Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle tweets.
With the Rockets and Thunder set to tip off at 5:30 pm central time tonight, Westbrook is expected to test his strained quad on the court before the game, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, who tweets that the All-Star point guard will be a game-time decision.
While it remains to be seen whether Westbrook will get the go-ahead to play tonight, it sounds as if he’s getting awfully close, which means the odds we’ll see him in action before the end of the series are increasing.
Here are a few more brief injury updates from around the NBA:
- Magic forward Aaron Gordon (hamstring) has been ruled out for Game 5 against Milwaukee, the team announced today (via Twitter). We heard on Tuesday that Gordon was still having trouble running up and down the court and that the club didn’t want to risk him suffering a more serious injury. If Orlando loses today, Gordon’s season will be over without him getting a chance to play in the postseason.
- Raptors guard Kyle Lowry (ankle sprain) didn’t practice again today, as Marc Stein of The New York Times tweets. However, Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca doesn’t necessarily view that as a bad sign, tweeting that there would be no sense running Lowry through a full practice even if he’s feeling good and plans to play on Thursday. Lowry’s status for Game 1 against Boston remains up in the air.
- Four key Mavericks players – Kristaps Porzingis (knee), Luka Doncic (ankle), Dorian Finney-Smith (hips), and Trey Burke (ankle) – are listed as questionable to play in Game 6 on Thursday, with Dallas’ season on the line, according to Brad Townsend and Callie Caplan of The Dallas Morning News (Twitter links).
It’s really a shame that Dallas is falling apart at the seams physically. It seemed they were really giving the Clippers a run for their money.
Give some credit to Paul George! I know I’ve been berating him for his lack of production this postseason, but he took accountability for his struggles and stepped up with a magnificent performance last night. First player with over 35 points in less than 25 minutes in a postseason contest since the GOAT himself
The BS technical fouls on KP completely altered the series. Who knows where it would be if the refs didn’t decide that game
KP is a joke. At least Luka willing to play hurt. KP needs to toughen up it’s the NBA No Babies Allowed during playoff time.
Someone sounds salty they traded Porzingis. At least Dallas IS experiencing playoff time, courtesy of the Knicks front office
When did MJ do that?