Sprained ankle to sideline Anderson against Thunder
With their third seed all but assured, the Rockets’ goals for the remainder of the regular season were to play well and stay healthy. For now, they have to hope they can continue to play well.
Forward Ryan Anderson was ruled out of Sunday’s game against the Oklahoma City Thunder with a sprained right ankle, suffered in the final minutes of Friday’s victory over New Orleans when he stumbled while defending DeMarcus Cousins. The Rockets will not put a timetable on how long they expect Anderson to be out until he meets with team doctors, but Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni said Anderson “probably” will be out for Tuesday’s game against Golden State.
With Anderson out, D’Antoni said he would start either Eric Gordon or Sam Dekker, depending on whether he would rather have James Harden match up defensively against power forwards in a lineup with Gordon. In the most recent game Anderson missed, Gordon started. But Utah also had an injury at power forward and downsized to match up with the Rockets.
“I hate it for Ryan,” D’Antoni said. “I hate that he’s not here. But we have enough to cover it up.”
The Thunder lead the NBA in rebounding and in points scored in the paint and are especially strong inside since the addition of Taj Gibson. But the Thunder’s strengths will have no influence on the Rockets’ lineup, D’Antoni said.
“We’ll be who we are,” D’Antoni said. “That’s not going to change anything. It doesn’t change a whole lot if it’s Sam or Eric. Lou (Williams) and Sam will for sure get more minutes.”
Oklahoma City is second in offensive rebounding percentage, first since the trade for Gibson. The Thunder lead the NBA in second-chance points since he moved into the starting lineup.
“They’re really big on rebounding,” Gordon said. “When we slow that down, we’ll be good. Everybody has to collectively rebound … so we can run on the other end. We have to have our main focus on the defensive side, get defensive rebounds and we’ll be good.”
If the Rockets do rebound well, they believe they have an advantage with Harden defending fours because teams will usually be cross-matched to defend him, with Oklahoma City keeping Andre Roberson on Harden as much as possible.
“I just try to be as physical as I can and help rebound the basketball,” Harden said. “If I get it, I’m going to push it, and it’s going to be hard for their bigs to get back. We have to play faster, smarter and more physical.”
The Rockets will try to do all that against the team they are lined up to face in the firstround of the playoffs, with getting ready for the postseason their prime objective.
“It’s important,” Harden said. “Every game from here on out is important, making sure we’re playing well on both ends of the floor. … We have to make sure we’re really focused and our details are on point.”