The Houston Rockets had a tough loss on Wednesday but the news and rumors keep ramping up as the team prepares for another game.
Check out the latest buzz below.
Howard Aims to Return on Saturday
Dwight Howard has now missed 10 straight games but has a return in sight.
Coach Kevin McHale initially said that the center would be back sometime this week, but that timetable was revised a couple days later.
Now Howard says he hopes to return on Saturday at home against the Denver Nuggets.
“That’s the plan,” Howard told ESPN. “I don’t want to put a date on it, but that might be the best time. We'll have a couple days of practice after [Thursday’s game against Sacramento], and I should be ready to go.”
Howard said it’s been tough to be out for so long.
“It’s very frustrating. But the one thing that’s kind of a blessing is the other guys are playing really great basketball and it’s only going to strengthen our group,” he said.
“It’s a testament to everything that’s been going on all summer. Guys worked hard this summer. We’ve really stepped up on defense. That was the one thing we all said after last year, ‘We’ve got to play defense now. It can’t be one or two people, it has to be the whole team.’”
Howard could have been out a shorter time but he and the team opted for the platelet-rich plasma therapy, which takes longer but ensures a better recovery.
“The problem was my cartilage was wearing down, and it’s been wearing down because I’ve been playing basketball for a very long time,” the 29-year-old told USA Today.
“When you have the bone rubbing on bone, it brings a lot of pain. Every step, every movement I would make, there was just a lot of pain. I wasn’t going to put myself and my teammates through that by just trying to play through that. It was something that needed to go away in order for me to be where I wanted to be as a player, to be who my teammates needed me to be every night. So I’m happy that a lot of that stuff is going away. The best thing I can do now is just try and prevent it from happening again.”
The Rockets have a host of other injuries as well. Francisco Garcia (strained right calf/Achilles), Isaiah Canaan (sprained left ankle), Terrence Jones (nerve inflammation in left leg) and Kostas Papanikolaou (strained right knee) sat out against the Warriors.
Their returns are less certain at this point, particularly for Jones, who was starting before he went down.
James Harden is also struggling with injury, but played against the Warriors after being listed as questionable due to back spasms.
Tarik Black has been starting for Howard.
Rockets Aggressively Looking for Trade
The Rockets are aggressively pursuing deals in which they can use the $8.4 million trade exception acquired in the Jeremy Lin trade, sources told Yahoo.
“Rival executives say that Houston’s front office has been active in searching out deals in recent days and wants an acquisition completed within the 60-day reaggregation window before the Feb. 19 NBA trade deadline,” it said. “This way, the Rockets could still have an option of moving the player again this season.”
Two unnamed teams thought they had deals forming with the Rockets, but then sensed that general manager Daryl Morey is working to find better deals.
The Rockets want to get the best player possible but also want to acquire a wing and/or frontcourt players.
Houston has until early July to use the exception but has imposed its own deadline as December 19.
Bleacher Report notes that top candidates for the win include Corey Brewer of the Minnesota Timberwolves, who has been linked specifically to the Rockets, and Jeff Green of the Boston Celtics.
More modest targets include Andrew Nicholson of the Orlando Magic and Jonas Jerebko of the Detroit Pistons.
Rockets Prepare for Kings
The Rockets face the Sacramento Kings on the tail end of a back-to-back, but will have a lesser challenge as the Kings are also missing their starting center--DeMarcus Cousins.
The Rockets beat the Kings 102-89 in the last matchup between the teams. Cousins played in that game, but so did Canaan and some of the other now-injured players.
“The Rockets have done well in back-to-backs this season, going 4-1 in the second game of their first five sets of two games in as many night,” noted the Houston Chronicle.
“Four of those back-to-backs also ended on the road where the Rockets were 8-1 going into Wednesday’s game at Golden State.”
Though Cousins is out, the Kings still have a formidable player in Rudy Gay, who will likely try to clamp down on Harden as well.
Outside of Gay and Darren Collison, though, the Kings don’t have much firepower.
Rockets Lose to Warriors Down the Stretch
Steve Kerr knew he had a lot of expectations on him after taking over a Golden State Warriors team that Mark Jackson led to a 51-win season and back-to-back playoff appearances.
In less than two months, Kerr has built on his predecessor’s success and eclipsed every rookie coach that came before him.
Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry shook off slow starts to finish with a flurry, and the Warriors extended their franchise-best winning streak to 14 games by beating the Houston Rockets 105-93 on Wednesday night.
Golden State improved its NBA-leading record to 19-2 and helped Kerr carve out a slice of history. Kerr became the first rookie coach to win 19 of his first 21 games.
“It means I’m the luckiest coach in NBA history,” Kerr said. “Because I inherited a team that was already really good.”
And apparently made them even better.
Thompson scored 21 points and Curry added 20 points, seven assists and seven rebounds to power an 11-0 run in the final minutes and turn a tight game into another comfortable win. About the only thing Kerr said he could complain about was the postgame meal, and he even laughed that off.
“You just want to pile up wins in the West,” Kerr said. “Keep putting some numbers in the win column because there’s 61 games left.”
James Harden played through back pain to finish with 34 points and eight rebounds for the Rockets, who had won four straight and seven of eight despite center Dwight Howard being sidelined.
Howard (strained right knee) and Warriors big man Andrew Bogut (right knee tendinitis) both sat out with injuries, and the smaller lineups worked in Golden State’s favor in the end.
The Warriors outscored Houston 32-17 in the fourth quarter.
“They’re a good team and they broke us down a little bit,” Harden said. “We got too spread out on defense.”
The teams traded baskets for most of the game, and anytime one side began to pull away, the other followed with another spectacular play — until Golden State’s final push.
Harden hit a tying 3-pointer with 4:45 remaining, and the Warriors answered in dramatic fashion: Draymond Green roared down the lane for a soaring dunk, Harrison Barnes started a three-point play with a driving layup over Harden and Thompson blocked Patrick Beverly from behind and finished a finger-roll layup on the other end.
But the Warriors still weren’t done.
After the Rockets called timeout, Green came up with a steal and passed ahead to Curry for a layup. The Warriors got another stop and Thompson hit two free throws to give Golden State a 100-89 lead.
“You lose probably one of the top centers in the league (without Bogut), so we tried to make up for that by being quick and scrappy,” said Barnes, who finished with 20 points and seven rebounds.
Trevor Ariza and Donatas Motiejunas each scored 18 for the Rockets. Golden State outshot Houston 49.4 to 41.6 percent, and each team had 15 turnovers.
“They attacked us off the dribble and we didn’t handle that very well,” Rockets coach Kevin McHale said. “They got some open stuff, and when they went small, it bothered us.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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