Rockets-Warriors Injury Updates Revealed for Draymond, Kuminga, Adams, Eason, Finney-Smith
On Sunday, the Houston Rockets announced Kevin Durant would miss Wednesday’s game with the Golden State Warriors due to a family matter.
The Rockets will be without a few other rotation players as well.
Steven Adams (ankle) will miss his second game of the season, while Tari Eason (oblique) and Dorian Finney-Smith (ankle) will remain out. Eason has missed the last four games, while Finney-Smith has yet to make his season debut.
Fred VanVleet is also out for at least most of season with an ACL injury.
Meanwhile, the Warriors got good news on the injury report. Draymond Green is listed as probable with a foot sprain. Al Horford (right sciatic nerve) and Jonathan Kuminga (knee) are out, but Kuminga was assigned to the G League to scrimmage before Wednesday’s game, which suggests he’s nearing a return.
How Houston Fared Without KD on Monday
Amen Thompson had a dominant performance without Durant on Monday as the Rockets beat the Phoenix Suns 114-92.
Thompson had 28 points, eight assists and seven rebounds. Aaron Holiday added 22 points off the bench, and starters Alperen Sengun and Jabari Smith Jr. chipped in 18 and 17 points, respectively.
Starters Josh Okogie (9 points, 4-of-11 shooting) and Reed Sheppard (7 points, 2-of-9 shooting) struggled, but it didn’t matter as the Suns shot just 41 percent from the floor and had 21 turnovers.
Another Chapter of Curry vs. Thompson
Curry and Thompson had a great battle in the first round of last year’s playoffs. Per NBA.com, Curry’s stats over seven games when guarded by Thompson were 34 points, 11-of-27 shooting, 8-of-18 from three, five assists and eight turnovers.
Those numbers support what the eye test suggests: Thompson plays great defense on the two-time MVP.
Curry got the last laugh as the Warriors won the series in seven games. You can expect Thompson to spend the majority of possessions guarding Curry, though Okogie (94th percentile in Defensive EPM) should also guard him at times.
Rockets Are 1st in Two Major Categories
It’s not a surprise that the Rockets are first in rebound percentage (55.4), as they dominated in that category last year as well.
But what is a surprise is their improvement shooting threes.
Houston is shooting 42 percent from three, which is 5.1 percent better than Golden State’s percentage (36.9). The Milwaukee Bucks (41.3 percent) are the only other team shooting above 38.2 percent from downtown.
This actually hasn’t been directly due to Durant. He’s shooting just 36.4 percent from three. Eason (50.9 percent), Holiday (48.3), Sheppard (47.1) and Sengun (44.2) have led the charge here, and Okogie (40.9) and Smith (39.0) have also been formidable.
The Warriors allow opponents to shoot just 35.1 percent from three. They’ll need to keep that up Wednesday because they will likely get outrebounded (23rd in rebound percentage).
