Making do with Wood missing
Center has been among bright spots early on this season
Thirteen games into a fishtailing season, Rockets guard Sterling Brown called for short memories from his teammates, along with upbeat minds in the meantime.
“We don’t have time to sit there and mope around and feel sorry for ourselves,” Brown said Thursday as the Rockets prepared to leave for Friday night’s game at Detroit. “It’s on to the next.”
If there were a time for a smidgen of sulking within the franchise, however, it might be now. Coach Stephen Silas said of center Christian Wood, the 4-9 Rockets’ top player following James Harden’s trade to Brooklyn on Jan. 13: “I would be surprised if he played over the weekend.”
Wood did not travel to Detroit with a right ankle sprain and likely will miss Saturday night’s game at Dallas as well. Wood, acquired by the Rockets from the Pistons in November, leads the team in scoring (23.5 points per game), re
bounding (10.8 boards per game) and blocks (1.8 per game).
“It’s not anything to panic or worry about right now,” Brown said of the team’s state in January’s home stretch.
That time might come soon, however, considering the Rockets have lost three consecutive games and five of their last six, including 109-103 against the Suns on Wednesday night at Toyota Center. The Rockets trailed Phoenix by 20 in the second quarter, only to slice the Suns’ lead to two late, teasing the hometown fans.
Wood left the game with the ankle injury in the second quarter but returned in the third to key the comeback, producing 15 points and eight rebounds after halftime.
“I was hurting the whole second half,” Wood said afterward. “They told me actually not to go in and play, but I felt like my team needed me. My team needed to win this game.”
The Rockets didn’t win, and now they’ll likely be without Wood for the next two games at minimum. Veteran center DeMarcus Cousins, who signed a oneyear contract in December, should finally earn extended action in Wood’s absence.
“(He’s) going to get more minutes, and that will have a way of making it a little bit easier on him,” Silas said. “He’s never in his career come off the bench. … This is new for him, and it’s a new experience he is going through. It’s up to me and my communication with him to help him along.
“There’s some rust there, but it’s just different for him, and it’s my job to help him and do what I can to help him play to his strengths.”
Cousins has played in 10 games and is shooting 29.7 percent from the floor in limited action — action that should increase out of necessity starting Friday in Detroit. Meanwhile, guard John Wall (sore left knee) continues to be out until at least early next week.
“We’re just going to have to figure it out,” Silas said of his ideal lineup with the absences of Wood and Wall. “As we’ve been doing all season, we’re going to take it game by game.”
Following the consecutive games on the road this weekend, the Rockets return to Toyota Center for a Tuesday contest against Washington and a Thursday game against Portland in their continued effort to make the playoffs for a ninth consecutive season.
Forward P.J. Tucker whittled the Rockets’ mission to its most elementary objective moving forward.
“We’ve got to win. That’s the only way to make the playoffs — just winning,” Tucker said. “You’ve got to do whatever you’ve got to do to figure out how to put yourself in a position to give yourself a chance to win. That’s it.”
The Rockets could help themselves on that front starting against the Pistons (3-11) by putting themselves in better position to rebound. The Rockets were 24th out of 30 teams in rebounding (42.8 per game) entering Thursday’s contests. “Rebounding is all about will, effort and heart,” Tucker said. “Everybody taking a guy … guards crashing in and taking the bigs out. It’s a collective effort, and everybody has to do their part. One person not doing it breaks it all down.”
The Rockets are height-challenged, however, especially minus the 6-10 Wood.
“It’s a ‘hit first’ mentality … something new we have to develop,” Silas said of improving at rebounding. “We can’t try to outjump people. We’re not an extremely big team where we’re just going to take up space and rebound just because we’re big, like the Lakers. … We’ve got to be physical and hit first — that’s the mentality we have to have.
“It’s got to be a group effort as far as the guards coming back and rebounding the ball as well. The No. 1 thing is having an attitude that you’re going to hit somebody, box them out and go get the basketball.”