Officially, Houston Rockets big man Christian Wood was listed as questionable with left knee tendinitis for Wednesday’s road game at Cleveland. But head coach Stephen Silas made it clear earlier in the day that he isn’t expecting Wood to be available against the Cavaliers, or even for Thursday’s home game versus New York.
Wood struggled in 25 minutes during Monday’s win at Atlanta, collecting 12 points and 5 rebounds on 4-of-13 shooting (30.8%) and 0-of-6 on 3-pointers. All of those totals are well below Wood’s 2021-22 season averages, and he did not play at all during the fourth quarter.
With the benefit of hindsight, it now appears clear that Wood was limited by injury. In comments to Rockets radio broadcaster Matt Thomas on SportsTalk 790, here’s what Silas said Wednesday of Wood’s status:
With Christian, it’s less about the back-to-back and more about the injury. He has been, kind of managing his knee for a little while and playing through it.
He tweaked it, or it just got to a point where the pain was not necessarily unbearable, but really becoming an issue. So, he’s out tonight. The good thing about this situation, compared to last year, is we have a little bit more depth. With (Daniel) Theis, who hadn’t been in the playing group, we can throw him in. We can be successful with that lineup on the floor.
Christian will probably be out today and tomorrow.
If Wood is unavailable, that could present an opportunity for reserve big men like Theis, Alperen Sengun, KJ Martin, and perhaps even Usman Garuba to have a shot at more playing time over the next two games.
For the 2021-22 season as a whole, Wood is averaging 16.5 points, 11.1 rebounds, and 2.3 assists in 31.8 minutes. The 26-year-old leads the Rockets (9-18) in scoring and rebounding, and he’s a big reason why Houston entered Wednesday with wins in eight of its last 10 games.
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