The illness bug going around the Houston Rockets has seemingly claimed guard Austin Rivers and center Tyson Chandler as its latest victims.
Both reserves missed Monday’s home loss to Sacramento, and the team announced at Tuesday’s practice at Toyota Center before departing for Cleveland that they would also miss Wednesday’s game.
Within the past two weeks, starting center Clint Capela and small forward Danuel House Jr. both missed multiple games due to illness. While the team has not confirmed that all of its illnesses are related, having four players all suffer extensive illness absences in such a short timeframe would appear to point to something being contagious.
Mike D’Antoni says Tyson Chandler and Austin Rivers out (illness) tomorrow night. Will not make the trip to Cleveland. TBD after that.
— Mark Berman (@MarkBermanFox26) December 10, 2019
Rivers, now 27 years old, is averaging 8.4 points and 2.7 rebounds in 24.9 minutes per game for the Rockets (15-8).
Chandler, who is 37 and in his 19th NBA season, averages 1.7 points and 2.7 rebounds in 9.1 minutes per game.
With the pair of veterans out, Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni turned to second-year forward Gary Clark and rookie guard Chris Clemons to help fill out his bench rotation on Monday.
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