For the time being, the Houston Rockets remain without four rotation players (Garrison Mathews, DJ Augustin, Jae’Sean Tate, and KJ Martin) due to the NBA’s health and safety protocols for COVID-19. But as of now, the team appears cautiously optimistic that they could return soon.
“They’re good,” head coach Stephen Silas said prior to Tuesday’s home game. “Symptoms are minimal, if that. Everybody’s fine.”
Mathews and Augustin have been resting in Houston since apparently testing positive on Sunday, when the team was coming out of its mini-break over Christmas. Tate and Martin, however, were with the team in Charlotte when they were placed into the protocol on Monday. While NBA rules did not allow them to travel back to Houston with the team, Silas said Tuesday that he believed they had returned on their own.
The NBA’s newly revised protocols could allow many of those players to return much sooner than they would have earlier in the season. Per ESPN, vaccinated players who are asymptomatic can now clear quarantine after six days if testing data shows they’re no longer at risk to be infectious. The Rockets’ roster is fully vaccinated and fully boostered, which may also be playing a role in their lack of symptoms.
Thus, for Houston’s players who went into the protocol early this week, they could potentially emerge as soon as Saturday’s home game versus Denver or Monday’s road contest in Philadelphia. As of late Wednesday, the team had not issued an expected timetable just yet.
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