Team inching closer to full strength
The Rockets have a chance to be close to full strength for the first time this season even if the players returning likely will not be.
Guard James Harden, who missed Saturday’s game with a sprained right ankle, is listed as questionable to play Monday against the Mavericks. Ben McLemore and K. J. Martin, who have been self-isolating, are available but have been in the NBA process for returning from COVID-19 issues, limiting their work.
Players who produce a positive COVID-19 test are not permitted to do any training for at least 10 days after the test or resolution of symptoms, if there were any.
Once beginning training, players must spend two days in individual workouts with no interaction with others and must begin cardiac screening. More severe cases that require hospitalization dictate that players must be observed for three days before being permitted to play. That was not the case for McLemore and Martin, but they return to the active roster having done little work in nearly two weeks.
“Obviously, they haven’t been doing much for the last little while, so it will take them awhile to get reacclimated,” Rockets coach Stephen Silas said.
Brown making most of his chance on court
The Rockets saw Sterling Brown as a good 3-and-D addition on the wing but could not have predicted the start he would get. After he missed the first week of training camp following a COVID-19 test, he might not have expected his hot start to go quite as it has.
Through four games, Brown’s
71.4 percent shooting leads the NBA. His 60 percent 3-point shooting ranks fourth. After scoring in double figures seven times with the Bucks last season, he has at least 10 points in three of four games this season, averaging 9.8 per game. His 92.9 true shooting percentage is tied for the best in the NBA among players who have played more than
one game and averaged at least 10 minutes.
“I expected to come in and do what I got to do to get out on the floor,” Brown said. “As far as training camp, it set me back a little bit. That’s nothing I can’t get over — get in extra hours before and after practice. I’ll be back in better shape and locked in. I put in the work and take the opportunity that’s given to go out there and capitalize.”
With at least two 3-pointers in every game, Brown has tied the longest streak of games with multiple 3s in his career. A 34.5 percent 3-point shooter in his three seasons with the Bucks, Brown has made nine of 15 3s this season.
“It’s a combination of confidence of my team in finding me, coaches, my teammates believing in me,” Brown said. “I’ve been putting in the work. I’m going to continue to do that. That’s a given. Just having that opportunity, getting those looks and taking them, that’s really all it is.”
With James Harden out, Brown worked as the Rockets’ sixth man, playing 26 minutes and earning confidence from coach Stephen Silas, who did not know what Brown would bring.
“Coming into this situation, I didn’t really know too much about Sterling,” Silas said. “I’d spoken to (Bucks assistant coach) Darvin Ham, who had him in Milwaukee. He was like, ‘You’ve got to get him.’ That’s all I really knew.”
Silas looking forward to seeing former team
With the Mavericks coming to Toyota Center on Monday, Rockets coach Stephen Silas did not plan to take Sunday off as if there were little need to prepare after two years on the Dallas bench. Instead, he said there was still “plenty of film to watch.”
Silas also said he is looking forward to the reunion.
“They’re a problem,” Silas said. “But it’ll be good to see those guys. Obviously, coach ( Rick) Carlisle did so much for me, and I haven’t really gotten a chance to say thank you in person. So I’m looking forward to that. Then the guys — Luka ( Doncic), KP ( Kristaps Porzingis), Dwight Powell, Dorian Finney-Smith, all of them, Tim Hardaway Jr. — I’m really looking forward to seeing them.
“Not necessarily looking forward to playing against them because they’re a good team.”