Porter sits out with injury
OKLAHOMA CITY — Rockets point guard Kevin Porter Jr. was unavailable to play Wednesday night against the Thunder, two days after a bruised left thigh forced his early exit from a loss to the Grizzlies.
The Rockets started Eric Gordon, Jalen Green, Jae’Sean Tate, Danuel House Jr. and Christian Wood, their third different starting lineup of the season. Gordon and House had not started prior to Wednesday’s game.
Porter started each of the Rockets’ 14 games prior to Wednesday, averaging 12.7 points, 5.1 assists and 4.1 rebounds in 30.8 minutes per game. Coach Stephen Silas said the rookie Green would be tasked with increased playmaking and facilitating responsibilities in Porter’s absence.
“We’ve had a bunch of different groups on the floor together, so it may affect our start a little bit, we may have Jalen handle a little bit more, but that’s part of it,” Silas said. “That’s part of the deal, adjusting when you have injuries and reacting.”
Recharge needed amid long skid
After back-to-back blowout losses extended the Rockets’ skid to a dozen games, an off day Tuesday gave the Rockets a valuable opportunity to recharge ahead of Wednesday’s game against the Thunder.
In Gordon’s case, that meant watching the new season of “Narcos” and catching up on sleep.
NBA players — they’re just like us.
“It’s definitely a recharge, and you definitely need some off days,” Gordon said. “That always helps the mind and body. But today it’s all about coming in and being ready to play and focus on what we need to do here.”
Gordon was active again for Wednesday’s game after groin tightness caused him to sit out the Rockets’ blowout loss in Memphis, a decision he described as “precautionary.”
Asked if he could take any positives away from the then 12-game losing streak, Gordon said, “That it can’t get worse than now.”
“And you know, it’s all about just growing and guys getting serious about what their roles are and what they need to do,” he continued. “We just got to take each game at a time, each quarter, each possession at a time, and then we’ll get to where we need to go.”
The Rockets earned their lone win of the season against the Thunder, a 124-91 thrashing at Toyota Center last month, but Gordon said prior to Wednesday night’s rematch that the Rockets could not simply replicate that game plan.
“They’ve won more games, and they’re a better team than when we last played them,” Gordon said. “We just have to rise to the occasion, and we have to worry about what we need to do instead of what they need to do all the time. You just got to get some consistency on offense and defense. And then once you do that, then we can worry about, you know, hopefully that carries over to winning games.”