When usual starting point guard Kevin Porter Jr. injured a toe on his left foot on Jan. 11 in Sacramento, neither he nor the Houston Rockets had any idea it would take until March for him to return to action.
But, finally, Porter is expected to be back in Houston’s lineup for Wednesday’s home matchup versus Memphis after missing the previous 20 games with what the team called a left foot contusion.
Porter will likely be on a minutes limitation, per head coach Stephen Silas. That’s natural after such an extended layoff.
Nonetheless, any version of Porter is a welcome development for the Rockets (13-47), who own the NBA’s worst record. Houston entered Tuesday 3-17 in the 20 games missed by its fourth-year guard.
Stephen Silas says Kevin Porter Jr. will NOT play tonight vs. Denver.
Porter is expected to return against the Grizzlies tomorrow night.
“Confident about tomorrow, but not tonight.”
— Michael Shapiro (@mshap2) February 28, 2023
When he’s played this season, Porter is averaging 19.2 points (43.7% FG, 34.6% on 3-pointers), 5.6 rebounds and 5.5 rebounds per game. He leads Houston in assists on a per-game basis and ranks second in scoring, trailing only backcourt mate Jalen Green.
Green also recently returned from his own injury, having missed nearly two weeks due to a left groin strain suffered on Feb. 15.
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