After missing the Rockets‘ last three games while in the NBA’s health and safety protocols, second-year wing Kevin Porter Jr. has rejoined the team and will be ready to play on Tuesday, head coach Stephen Silas said today (Twitter link via Mark Berman of Fox 26 Houston).
Rockets big man Christian Wood, who missed Saturday’s game with a minor ankle injury, is also in position to return on Tuesday, Silas said (Twitter link via Berman). The team should get further reinforcements prior to the end of the season, according to Silas, who expressed optimism that D.J. Augustin (ankle), Sterling Brown (knee), and Eric Gordon (groin) will also be back in the coming weeks.
Here are a few more health-related updates from around the NBA:
- Cavaliers forward Larry Nance Jr., who injured his right thumb on Sunday, has been diagnosed with a fracture in that thumb, according to a team press release. Nance has been ruled out for Monday’s game vs. Toronto and will be re-evaluated daily as he undergoes treatment and rehab. Sources tell Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com that Nance will probably miss at least a week or two. With less than three weeks left in the regular season, there’s no guarantee we’ll see him again in 2020/21.
- Within the same release, the Cavaliers provided updates on several more players, announcing that Matthew Dellavedova (neck strain), Isaiah Hartenstein (concussion symptoms), and Lamar Stevens (concussion symptoms) have also hit the injured list and will miss tonight’s game.
- Wizards forward Rui Hachimura (knee) is set to return on Monday after missing the last four games, the team announced (via Twitter).
- Magic head coach Steve Clifford, who registered a positive COVID-19 test, will remain out for Monday’s game vs. the Lakers, according to Josh Robbins of The Athletic, who tweets that Tyrone Corbin will once again act as the club’s interim head coach. Clifford continues to be asymptomatic, Robbins notes.
The Rockets are in full tank mode now that they’re 2.5 games behind Minnesota and 3 games behind Orlando. There’s probably a fairly decent chance that more than just one of their players will suit up for more than 84% of the games next season, as has been the case so far in 2021. But they won’t be drafting in the top 5 again in 2022, or the next 4-5 years, like so many of the detractors here would like to think.
The Rockets are already better than OKC and Orlando right now, and by next season they should also be considerably better than Minnesota, Cleveland, Detroit, Washington, and Sacramento as well. Another year or two after that, who knows?
The last time Houston had back-to-back losing seasons was in the early 80’s. That was 37 years ago, I’m guessing before a lot of people here were even born. The only other time was when the team first arrived in Houston from San Diego in the early 70’s. Those were the only two times in franchise history the Rockets had consecutive losing seasons and this year is only their fourth losing season since 1984.
Houston has used a league-high 35 different starting lineups so far this season, in only 61 games. In those lineups they have also used a league-high 20 different starters, with 11 of those players having started at least 11 games apiece. No other team in the NBA this season has been forced to suffer from such a lack of continuity.