Tucker’s ironman run ends at 267 games
As greatly shorthanded as the Rockets knew they would be Monday against the Wizards, their injury situation grew considerably worse, including in one way it never has before.
Forward P.J. Tucker, who had never missed a game with the Rockets and had a streak of 267 consecutive games played, was forced to sit out with the bruised thigh that he suffered last week against the Heat and played through against Knicks on Saturday. Guard Eric Gordon, who has been the Rockets’ most consistent scorer in recent weeks, was held out with a sore right groin.
The Rockets are hopeful, coach Stephen Silas said, that the injuries to Gordon and Tucker will be day-to-day.
The Rockets already were without center Christian Wood and guard Victor Oladipo.
The starting lineup of DeMarcus Cousins, Jae’Sean Tate, Danuel House Jr., David Nwaba and John Wall was the Rockets’ 15th in 27 games. No lineup has been together for more than four games, none for more than three games since James Harden was traded a month ago. The Rockets have had a different lineup from the previous game in eight consecutive games.
Tucker had played in the most games in the NBA since returning to the league in 2012.
“It was tough,” Silas said. “For him not to play, you know he’s pretty banged up. It was a tough conversation to have. But he was the one. He was like, ‘Yeah, I can’t do it. I can’t move on the floor.’ That’s admirable because he could have just fought through, maybe to the detriment of the team, but he was thinking about his long-term prognosis as well as what’s best for the group. That’s P.J.”
With Tucker out, Tate is the only player to have played in every game for the Rockets this season.
The Rockets’ injury issues struck again on Monday night, this time with a particularly cruel hit to a player brought in to fill in for one of the players already out.
Fill-in center suffers injury to Achilles
Center Ray Spalding, who had signed on Friday with center Christian Wood out and forward P.J. Tucker battling a thigh bruise that would put him out on Monday, left the game against the Wizards with an Achilles injury.
Spalding had played 10 minutes in just his second game before he had to be helped to the locker room. He signed a two-way contract after two strong games in the G League bubble with the Rockets needing immediate help inside.
“It’s an apparent Achilles injury that will be evaluated more (on Tuesday),” Rockets coach Stephen Silas said. “The prognosis is not good.”
With Spalding out and Wood not close to returning, the Rockets could call up rookie K. J. Martin from the Rio Grande Valley Vipers.
Silas said Tucker, Victor Oladipo and Eric Gordon are all day-to-day with the team hopeful they could play in Philadelphia on Wednesday. But they did not appear on Monday as if they were close to returning that quickly.
Situation at home on everyone’s mind
The Rockets’ game-day preparations on Monday included calls back to Houston, where the families of players, coaches and staff were dealing with the winter storm and power outages while the team was on a threegame road trip and unable to help.
“I spoke to my wife earlier today whose phone was dying and she has no electricity,” coach Stephen Silas said.
“We’re monitoring it closely and kind of trying to figure it out. They’re at the house with no electricity, no heat, no nothing. That’s what everybody in Houston is going through and we feel for them. Just got to get through these next couple days and do whatever it takes to stay warm and stay at home.”
This was not the best way to prepare for a game, with much of the day spent just trying to get through to people.
“It’s been a little hectic for sure,” Silas said. “Just trying to check in and make sure everybody’s OK, check with other people on the staff, make sure their families are doing OK. It’s just one of those things, another thing we have to deal with. But first and foremost is the safety of everybody in Houston and making sure everybody stays home and stays warm and gets fed.”
Wall regains form before homecoming
Wizards coach Scott Brooks had watched John Wall go through the surgeries and rehabs for years, watching him work his way back before he was dealt to the Rockets. After that, Brooks was not after that surprised to see Wall back and not only playing well but playing much as he always had.
“I saw all the work he was putting in,” Brooks said. “I knew he was coming back. Before the bubble, I don’t know if he would have played the rest of last season, but he was getting close.
“Watching him live, watching him on TV and watching him on film, he’s back. He’s back to being John Wall. He’s quick. He’s explosive. He can get to any place on the floor. He’s shooting the ball well. His individual game, he’s playing at a high level. He’s right there with the All-Star point guards in the league, and it’s hard to be an All-Star point guard. There’s so many great ones in the league.”
Wall has averaged 19.5 points and 5.9 assists, averaging more points per minute on far better 3-point shooting than he ever has in his 10 NBA seasons. Wall averaged 23.4 points in five games prior to playing the Wizards in his return to Washington on Monday. It did not take long, coach Stephen Silas said, to tell that Wall had reclaimed his characteristic explosiveness.
“The first few days of training camp you could see the speed and see his ability to get in the paint and his ability to make plays for others,” Silas said. “He was still rusty at that point and making mistakes that he would be frustrated with. We had conversations about just making sure this is a process and understood where he was at coming back from major, major injuries.
“It was early, we saw he had something, but I think it is game-by-game and situation-bysituation that we see he is really a good basketball player and has really helped us a lot.”
Brooks knows a lot about sitting
As word spread on Monday that veterans Blake Griffin and Andre Drummond would sit out while the Pistons and Cavaliers, respectively, considered trades, the fairly unusual situations seemed familiar to Wizards coach Scott Brooks, who had been a journeyman point guard with a stop on the Rockets’ 1994 championship team.
“It’s happened for a while,” Brooks said. “Teams, players have done it for years. Jimmy Lynam did it to me. Bill Musselman did it to me. Jimmy Rodgers to me. Rudy Tomjanovich did it to me. Dick Motta did it to me. Jeff Van Gundy did it to me. Mike Fratello did it to me. Chris Ford did it to me.
“They just never told me that they weren’t going to play me. They were trying to trade me.”