All’s not well now that Shumpert’s ailing

LOS ANGELES — Just when the Rockets thought they would have their full rotation together for the first time since Dec. 11, they won’t.

Forward Iman Shumpert will be out against the Lakers on Thursday and against Golden State on Saturday with a sore right knee and then will be re-evaluated next week before the Rockets play Atlanta on Monday to start a stretch of three games in four nights.

With the Rockets dealing James Ennis III at the trade deadline after acquiring Shumpert, Gerald Green and Austin Rivers will be the only reserves off the bench at small forward and shooting guard. Rivers missed the final game before the All-Star break with a sore right elbow, but he was cleared to practice and play.

Tucker unfazed by James matchup

Lakers forward LeBron James has averaged 26.5 points on 52.5 percent shooting in two games against the Rockets this season. But in the fourth quarters and the overtime of those games he had just two field goals in 10 attempts as the Rockets won both.

P. J. Tucker won’t claim to have stopped James or even had worn him down while battling with James. But the Rocket said he has gone against James so often for so long that he does not shirk from the force that stuns many players.

“You do what you can as a defender to try to discourage him from being able to score and effect the game,” Tucker said. “LeBron is so good sometimes no matter what you do he’s going to do that. During games, you don’t pay attention to it. You just keep playing and try to win the game.

“Every year I’ve been in the NBA I’ve been assigned to LeBron. I’ve been playing against him since we were little kids. It’s something that’s been going on for a long time.”

Capela’s return excites teammates

After having center Clint Capela at practice for two days, the Rockets were encouraged by what they saw. Capela had missed 15 games following thumb surgery and practiced with a wrap on his thumb, but he had no issues with the injury and was listed as probable to play against the Lakers.

“Clint looked good,” coach Mike D’Antoni said. “It seemed like his conditioning was good. Everything’s a go. I don’t think he’s been whacked on it yet or caught a bad pass. Probably won’t happen until we get in a game.”

However, his teammates viewed Capela’s return as a potential turning point.

“We’re excited to get Clint back,” forward P. J. Tucker said. “Clint is a huge piece to our team, and he makes a lot of other people’s jobs a lot easier. He makes our defense be able to switch on to guards and be able to guard guards and protect the rim as well. (He) changes the dynamic for us.”

Though Kenneth Faried has been productive filling in, the Rockets viewed the combination of Capela’s pick-and-roll play with Faried off the bench as a chance to improve defensively while getting more balance offensively.

“That’s huge,” guard Gerald Green said. “We have Kenneth Faried. We have Nene, who is always ready to play at any time. He’s the biggest professional we’ve got. But Clint, man, he’s such a huge piece of what James (Harden) does, what C.P. ( Chris Paul) does, what everybody does.

“Defensively, we’re going to be way better. Offensively, guys are going to get a lot more shots. There’s going to be a lot more buckets at the paint that guys are going to have to guard. It’s going to get guys like me, E.G. ( Eric Gordon), Austin (Rivers) open for shots. Clint coming back is huge, man, it’s huge.”