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Yesterday at practice, the Rockets were running with a skeleton crew. Jeremy Lin and Chandler Parsons were sidelined with back spasms, James Harden was out with an ankle issue, Omer Asik continued to be out with a thigh issue, Terrence Jones was sick, and Coach Kevin McHale was gone after the death of his mother. Today, the Rockets got good and bad news as McHale, Jones, and Parsons were all at practice but Harden, Lin, and Asik remained out.
Lin's injury was described as fairly bad by Kelvin Sampson yesterday, with Lin unable to even sit on the team plane on the way back from Sacramento, and he is likely going to miss at least tomorrow's game against the Bulls. Harden rolled his ankle pretty badly against the Kings, but Sampson indicated that he would likely play on Wednesday.
Asik will likely return in the next week or so, but all indications are that he has played his last minutes as a Houston Rocket. With the Rockets' self-imposed trade deadline tomorrow, expect to see him moved in the next 24 hours to a team that will nurse him back to health.
Daryl Morey mentioned the Rockets' relative luck with injuries last year as an unexpected factor in their success, and they're dealing with some serious regression to the mean right now. They have the depth to weather a storm like this, and hopefully an Asik trade will bring in some reinforcements.
For now, all the Rockets can do is hope for good fortune and wait until Lin and Harden return to the floor. With any luck, it won't be too long.
