Wood’s practice yields hope
Leading scorer wants to play ‘real bad,’ help end losing streak
Desperate for reasons for optimism, or even a glimmer of hope that they can escape the gloom, the Rockets could work on improvements, study video, even hold a rare practice.
Or they could check out the tall guy running around.
The losing streak, now at 16 games, one shy of the franchise record set when they were the San Diego Rockets in 1967-68, began when Christian Wood punished his right ankle in Memphis. Forty days and often unhappy nights later, he was back at practice, hoping to be back soon enough to stop the hemorrhaging of the five-plus weeks he has been out.
“I want to be back real bad,” Wood said. “I hate, I hate watching my team lose games and I have no control over it. I hate that feeling. I have to do everything possible to help my team win games, which is bring the energy, bring my ability to shoot and put the ball on the floor, and pickand-roll and pick-and-pop. I feel that was an area of the team we’ve been missing.”
That all sounds good, even encouraging. But for now, it is just a faint glimmer of hope with Wood upgraded only to doubtful to play against the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday in the first half of a back-to-back. And in keeping with intractable pattern of the Rockets’ season, the news was not all good.
Guard John Wall remains out. David Nwaba, who played through a wrist injury for two games, was ruled out. Though Danuel House Jr. was upgraded to questionable, guard Ben McLemore turned up on the injury report with a sprained ankle.
If they are all out, the Rockets would be back to the league required minimum of eight healthy and available players. But Wood declared himself “close,” which combined with his play at Monday’s practice, offered a reason for hope the Rockets desperately needed.
“Anything positive that you can bring as far as roster stuff or personality or a feeling of hope that you didn’t necessarily have after a bunch of losses,” Rockets coach Stephen Silas said. “You have guys coming back and you feel like you’re whole and you have a better chance. When these guys come back, hopefully it’ll be a positive thing for our group not just on the court but mentally.”
The Rockets felt that way last week when Wood went through his first practice since the injury. The mood changed rapidly when Wall was hurt at the end of that practice, Eric Gordon went out the next day and P.J. Tucker asked out in between. Three losses later and the Rockets needed a boost.
“The biggest adversity is obviously, the losing that we’ve been doing,” Silas said. “Trying to bring the group together, trying to keep the group positive, trying to find some continuity on the floor just because our lineups have been changing every night, trying to basically keep it all together, that’s the hard part when you’re losing as much as we have been recently.”
The uncertainty about when Wood might be back was in part because of the back-to-back and the sense that the Rockets would be cautious about having him play on consecutive nights. Even if Wood does return, Silas said his playing time would be limited.
That would add to the continuity issues for a team with 25 starting lineups in 37 games, but they would welcome a chance to deal with even reduced playing time from their leading scorer, rebounder and most accurate 3-point shooter.
“He’s not in great basketball shape yet,” Silas said. “I don’t know how long the minute restriction will be on him.
“We’re just going to have to work through it. That’s part of it. We’ve been doing stuff like that all season, whether it’s guys playing back-to-backs, minute restrictions, injuries, trades, other stuff, that’s just what we do.”
The Rockets cannot afford to be caught waiting for Wood to carry them. They have waited too long to end the losing streak to look ahead to another chance at a win. But they also could not help but notice the difference.
“He looked great,” guard Sterling Brown said. “It’s just on him, how he feels. There’s no need to rush it. He’s got a long career. He’s young still. He’s looking great, though. He looked like he’s doing everything he’s used to doing.
“It’s going to take a lot, lot of pressure off a lot of guys on the team. He is so versatile and he can do so much for us. He got to come out there and perform and have fun. We got to all just gel and get that chemistry and everything back. We need to be in sync and all on one page. But when he does come back, it’s going to give us a boost.”
It might even provide some contagious optimism at a time there has been almost as little of that as there have been victories.
“We’re good,” Wood said. “I think we’re going to be a great team. Everybody’s starting to come back. When we have everybody back, we’re going to be a tough team to handle.”