Tag: 2020 NBA Playoffs

Russell Westbrook frustrated by ill-timed health woes late in season

“It’s very frustrating, knowing that the postseason is where you’re supposed to elevate your game, and I was just trying to catch rhythm.”

Prior to the NBA’s multi-month hiatus for COVID-19, which began in March, Houston Rockets star Russell Westbrook was in one of the best stretches of his distinguished 12-year career.

The All-Star guard averaged 33.4 points per game on 54.9% shooting in February, including a 40.0% clip from 3-point range.

That was Westbrook’s last full month of games, and the Rockets went 9-2 as a team after switching to a smaller lineup — which was made with his unique skillset in mind. With the floor spaced thanks to shooters at all positions, Westbrook feasted on the open driving lanes.

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But the 31-year-old was never the same after the season restarted at the Disney World “bubble” in July. Westbrook was late to Houston’s training camp in florida after being sidelined for weeks with COVID-19, and he then strained his right quad in the team’s third “seeding” game of the restart. Due to that injury, Westbrook missed four of the last five regular-season games for the Rockets, and each of the first four playoff games.

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Westbrook returned for Game 5 of the first-round series against Oklahoma City, since the series was tied, 2-2, and the Rockets clearly needed his help to advance. But he never consistently reached the superstar level that he played at earlier in the 2020 calendar year.

In eight playoff games, Westbrook averaged 17.9 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 4.6 assists per game, which were the worst of his playoff career. In Saturday’s season-ending loss to the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals, Westbrook scored just 10 points on 4-of-13 shooting (30.8%). After the game, he was asked how much health issues played into his struggles, and this is how he responded:

It wasn’t 100 percent, but I’m not the guy to make excuses. … Obviously, an injury like this takes normally a couple weeks. I didn’t have time for that, especially with Oklahoma City.

It’s just unfortunate for me, because it’s very frustrating, honestly, man. Coming to Houston and then catching COVID, I had to sit back 20 days, 21 days without working out. When I came into Houston, I was probably in the best shape I’ve been in in a long time, coming back from the break, and then I had to kind of get re-acclimated. Then I got here, played two games, and then boom, I get hurt again.

Westbrook then noted that he was “just trying to catch rhythm” once he returned to the Rockets midway through the playoff run.

“It’s just very frustrating, knowing that in the postseason is where you’re supposed to elevate your game, and I was just trying to catch rhythm at the time,” Westbrook said. “It’s not time for that, but I’ve just got to get back to the drawing board and make sure I get healthy.”

Westbrook is under contract through at least the 2021-22 season (he has a player option for 2022-23), so it seems highly likely that he will get at least one more opportunity in Houston alongside close friend and co-star James Harden. Both All-Star guards and recent MVPs are still searching for their first NBA title, and having both of them healthy entering the 2021 playoffs would be the optimal place to start.

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Harden on ‘disappointing’ loss of Danuel House: ‘It’s a distraction’

“Very, very disappointing,” James Harden said. “It affected us. Obviously, it’s a distraction. He was a huge part of our rotation.”

The Houston Rockets had numerous problems in their second-round series loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, but one of them was clearly the unexpected loss of Danuel House Jr., their sixth man.

The 6-foot-6 forward was booted from the NBA’s “bubble” site for the 2020 playoffs after having an unauthorized female in his hotel room, which violated the league’s safety protocols aimed at reducing potential exposure to COVID-19. House initially denied any wrongdoing to NBA investigators, but he eventually confirmed the allegations.

For Rockets superstar James Harden, who is now 31 years old and in his 11th NBA season, losing a key role player midway through a playoff series — and for an entirely self-inflicted reason — is a tough pill to swallow. In a press conference after a season-ending loss in Game 5, Harden was asked how he felt about the House situation. Here’s how he responded:

Very, very disappointing. It affected us. Obviously, we still have to go out there and play a basketball game, and play a series. But it affected us. Obviously, it’s a distraction. He was a huge part of our rotation.

Harden led the Rockets with 30 points (on 60% shooting) and six rebounds, but he didn’t have much help in a 119-96 defeat. Of the other seven rotation players, all shot below 40% from the field, and only two scored in double figures. Clearly, having House could have helped.

In nine playoff games, House averaged 11.4 points (35.8% on 3-pointers) and 5.8 rebounds in 31.0 minutes, and he was among the most athletic and versatile options for Houston’s switch-heavy defense.

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The Rockets were 1-1 against the Lakers in two games with House, and they led going to the fourth quarter in the lone loss. Meanwhile, they were 0-3 without the 27-year-old in the final three games of the series, with the three losses by an average of more than 14 points per game.

While House is under contract with the Rockets for two additional years, there is likely work to be done this offseason if he is to rebuild trust with the organization before the 2020-21 season.

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Report: Tilman Fertitta intends to keep Daryl Morey as Rockets GM

Houston’s owner “fully intends” to keep his GM, per Tim MacMahon of ESPN. The future of head coach Mike D’Antoni is less clear.

With the 2019-20 Houston Rockets season coming to a disappointing end in the second round of the NBA playoffs, speculation will naturally pick up in the days ahead about potential offseason changes.

With an All-Star backcourt of recent league MVPs James Harden and Russell Westbrook — and both now 31 years old — there’s a clear sense of urgency to make a title push sooner rather than later.

Yet, with no salary cap room for the foreseeable future and most rotation players under contract for at least next season, it’s not easy to dramatically change the Houston roster. As a result, much of the focus about plausible moves has turned to the coaching staff and front office.

It does not appear, however, that renowned Rockets GM Daryl Morey is in any danger. Per Tim MacMahon of ESPN:

There has been widespread speculation throughout the league that Feritta would want to also move on from Morey this offseason, gossip that began in the wake of Morey’s tweet that damaged the Rockets’ relationship with China, costing the franchise millions of dollars in sponsorship deals. High-ranking Rockets sources dismiss those rumors, saying that Fertitta fully intends to keep Morey.

Since Morey took the full-time GM position prior to the 2007-08 season, the Rockets have not had a single losing season, and they now have NBA’s longest streak at eight consecutive playoff appearances. His peers named him as the NBA’s Executive of the Year in 2018.

Head coach Mike D’Antoni, on the other hand, may not be as secure in his status. Unlike Morey, D’Antoni does not have a contract beyond this season, which means there’s no dead money for owner Tilman Fertitta to have to eat if he chooses to go in a different direction. Fertitta and the Rockets tried to extend D’Antoni last offseason through the 2020-21 season, but the sides couldn’t reach a financial agreement.

Per MacMahon, many around the league — including D’Antoni — have since believed that the Rockets needed to make a deep playoff run for him to return as coach. That clearly did not happen.

MacMahon mentioned previous Rockets coach (and current television analyst) Jeff Van Gundy and former Brooklyn Nets coach Kenny Atkinson as potential coaching candidates in Houston, should the job open.

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Harden’s heroics not enough as Lakers shoot Rockets out of playoffs

James Harden scored 30 points on 60% shooting, but the Lakers were red hot on 3-pointers in a blowout Game 5 win to clinch the series.

With his team’s season on the line, James Harden showed up for the Houston Rockets in Game 5, scoring 30 points on 60% shooting in Game 5 of the second-round playoff series versus the Los Angeles Lakers.

Unfortunately for Harden, who also led the undersized Rockets with six rebounds, his teammates didn’t show nearly the same ability.

“It’s very, very frustrating,” Harden said postgame of his season coming to an end. “Especially the amount of work that individually I put in. I’m just gonna keep chipping away. … I feel like we’re a piece away.”

Among Houston’s other seven rotation players, all seven shot below 40% from the field and only two scored in double-figures as the Lakers cruised to a 119-96 victory (box score). Led by 29 points from LeBron James, Los Angeles had six total players in double figures, and they connected on a stunning 19-of-37 shots (51.4%) from 3-point range.

With the loss, Houston’s season ended in the second round of the playoffs, with the Lakers advancing to the Western Conference Finals. The Lakers (52-19) were nearly 10 games better than the Rockets (44-28) in the 2019-20 playoffs, and they showed why with four straight convincing victories to close out the best-of-seven series. After losing Game 1, the Lakers won the next four by an average of nearly 13 points per game.

“They hit some timely shots and played great,” Rockets head coach Mike D’Antoni said of the Lakers, who rushed out to a 33-11 lead in the first quarter and held off a series of Houston runs throughout the game. “We gave it everything we had. We just didn’t have enough for them.”

It remains to be seen if D’Antoni will return to the team next season. While he has the best winning percentage in franchise history in both the regular season and playoffs (among head coaches), the 4-1 series loss to the Lakers — including four straight to lose the series — showed how far as Rockets still have to go to reach the NBA’s top tier.

With no salary cap room for the foreseeable future and most of the key rotation players under contract for multiple seasons, it’s hard to envision a major change to the roster. On the other hand, D’Antoni’s contract is up, which makes a coaching change easier to pull off since there are no future financial obligations owed to him. With Harden and Westbrook both 31 years old, their prime years are running short, and there’s a clear sense of urgency for the franchise. If the roster can’t be significantly changed, they might need to gamble on a coaching move.

The Rockets will depart Sunday from the NBA’s Disney World “bubble” in Florida, with a charter flight back to Houston. Next up are offseason decisions to be made by owner Tilman Fertitta and GM Daryl Morey, with the coaching situation likely first on the agenda.

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FiveThirtyEight: Cs most-likely in East for Finals, in NBA to win title

The data wizards at FiveThirtyEight just gave the Boston Celtics’ end-of-season outlook a MAJOR upgrade after they dispatched the Toronto Raptors.

The Boston Celtics surged to the top of FiveThirtyEight’s 2019-20 NBA Predictions after their 92 – 87 Game 7 win over the Toronto Raptors in the Eastern Conference Semifinals on Friday.

Garnering pole positions in the estimation of the data wizards running the ironically-named RAPTOR-based projection, the Celtics are now deemed to have a 75% chance of getting past their opponents of the East Finals — the Miami Heat — to get to the 2020 NBA Finals.

Perhaps even more intriguing, Boston is expected to have a 54% chance of hanging Banner 18 this October.

The Celtics’ next-nearest opponent in the title race is the Los Angeles Clippers, given a 19% shot at winning it all, followed by the Miami Heat with 12%, and, shockingly, the Los Angeles Lakers with just 8% odds of a title.

The nearly-eliminated Denver Nuggets are expected to have less than 1% odds of a championship this season, which makes sense given their current position in their Western Conference Semifinals series.

The Celtics’ split regular-season record with the Heat would perhaps inspire confidence in some, but for the data-crunchers at FiveThirtyEight, a 25% shot at getting past Boston is the assessment, and based on the star power and matchup, it’s probably as good a guess as any.

But the Celtics ought to approach this series as if that number were reversed, lest their confidence end up backfiring with less-than-desperate play.

Just ask Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks their opinion of Jimmy Butler’s new team.

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Report: Danuel House eventually confirmed findings of NBA probe

Per Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle, House eventually confirmed the findings of an NBA investigation into his protocol breach.

Throughout the extended investigation into whether Houston Rockets forward Danuel House Jr. broke the NBA’s “bubble” protocol at Disney World, one reason the team had hoped he might return to the court was his continued denial of any wrongdoing.

It now appears that his denial may not have been truthful.

Houston Chronicle beat writer Jonathan Feigen writes:

House initially denied involvement in the incident according to the individual with familiar with the probe of the incident.

As the investigation progressed, however, House did confirm the NBA’s findings, according to another individual with knowledge of the investigation. He was instructed to leave the NBA’s Florida campus and will not return this season.

The discipline was much stronger than expected. On Wednesday, ESPN reported that House could potentially be out for the remainder of the team’s second-round playoff series against the Los Angeles Lakers, with the likely discipline being a mandatory 10-day quarantine period.

But if House initially lied to or misled the league’s investigators, that could explain why the NBA took the extra step of dismissing him from the Florida campus and ending his season, rather than just subjecting him to the usual 10-day quarantine for protocol violators.

The Rockets were reportedly “blindsided” in recent days by the NBA’s actions regarding House, who was forced out of Game 3 and Game 4 while the probe was in progress. However, that frustration may have been based in part on House’s denial, which now appears have been false.

Per The Athletic, the NBA focused on House based on “circumstantial evidence” suggesting that he violated protocol late Monday by being in close contact with an unauthorized female at his hotel.

Both House and the woman in question initially denied his involvement, with the woman (allegedly a COVID-19 testing official) identifying Tyson Chandler and another Houston player. However, the NBA found that information not to be credible, and Chandler was eventually cleared.

The circumstantial evidence against House appears have involved “door data,” referring to a possible opening of the door to House’s hotel room during the time window in question on Monday night.

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While testing officials are allowed inside the bubble, they go in and out each day and (unlike players) do not live there. Thus, as with maintenance staff, the NBA has strict protocols in place to minimize the potential exposure of those workers to personnel living at the bubble.

It all makes for an embarrassing end to the season for House, who remains under contract with the Rockets for two more seasons.

In nine playoff games, House averaged 11.4 points (35.8% on 3-pointers) and 5.8 rebounds in 31.0 minutes, and he was among the most athletic and versatile options for Houston’s switch-heavy defense. As long as Houston stays alive in the playoffs, his previous rotation minutes will likely be filled by reserves Austin Rivers and Ben McLemore.

In this second-round playoff series, the Rockets were 1-1 against the Los Angeles Lakers in both games with House, and they led going to the fourth quarter in the lone loss. Meanwhile, they’re 0-2 without their sixth man, with both losses coming by double digits.

Saturday’s Game 5 between the Rockets and Lakers tips off at 7:00 p.m. Central, with a national TV broadcast on ESPN. If Houston loses that game, its 2019-20 season would come to an end.

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Boston Celtics survive Raptors best, advance to East Finals, Heat

The Boston Celtics survived a furious assault by the defending champs, the Toronto Raptors falling to the Celtics 92-87.

We all knew this series would go seven games, deep inside.

The question ahead of the Game 7 Eastern Conference Finals showdown between the Boston Celtics and Toronto Raptors was simply which one of the two behemoths will advance to the Conference Finals vs. the Miami Heat.

Boston won the tip, but Toronto scored first, a Kyle Lowry 3 getting the contest started. Jayson Tatum got the Celtics on the board off an assist by Kemba Walker. The two teams traded buckets early, Boston taking its first lead off of a Marcus Smart make at 6-5.

A layup from Robert Williams III and a trey from Tatum gave the Celtics a four-point cushion, forcing a Raptors timeout. Boston came out of the timeout hot, Smart hitting a 3, followed by a make by Brown to give the Celtics a nine-point lead.

Another trey from Smart threatened to break the game wide open, but Fred Van Vleet answered back with one of his own. The Raptors chipped away at the lead with a bucket from Serge Ibaka and a dunk from Norman Powell, OG Anunoby completing a 9-2 run to force a Celtics timeout.

A pair of 3s from Matt Thomas and Ibaka wrested back the lead from Boston as the two teams would go back to trading makes, with Semi Ojeleye nailing a 3 for the Celtics to close out the first quarter trailing 27-27.

Boston began the second frame with Brown scoring off a Walker assist, Pascal Siakam returning the favor on the next possession. Ibaka gave the Raptors a 33-29 lead with a flush at the 9:30 mark, and a Van Vleet make would push the lead to six.

Brown stopped the bleeding, and Time Lord slammed home a dunk to cut the lead to four, but Walker would foul Ibaka on a 3, the big man converting them all to give Toronto a 40-33 lead. A Tatum dunk and a Smart make cut the lead to three, then take a 41-40 lead with 3:30 left in the half.

Another trey from Brown gave Boston breathing room, and Walker heating up pushed the lead to six. The Raptors didn’t let up however, Marc Gasol getting to the line and Van Vleet scoring on the last possession of the half to go into the break the Celtics up 50-46.

The penultimate quarter started with a filthy Tatum stepback and a make by Brown to push the lead to nine. Toronto would cut it back to four off a Lowry and-1, but Tatum answered back with another 3, and Theis pushed it right back to 60-51.

A trip to the line for Anunoby to three, and an Ibaka layup to one, both teams exchanging blows like a scene out of Rocky. A Smart three-point play gave Boston a small cushion, but a Van Vleet 3 would give the Raptors a 68-67 lead with 1:45 to play.

Walker would steal the lead right back on the next play, and Powell and Tatum hit back-to-back 3-pointers to send the Celtics into the final frame up just one point at 72-71.

The Celtics began the final frame with a 3 from Walker and a layup from Theis to put Boston up six. Tatum would complete a 7-0 run after a steal by Theis. A scary slip for Brown put every Celtics fan’s heart in their throat, but he emerged seemingly okay.

Van Vleet would cut the lead to five with a 3, and Walker would push it to 84-78 with six minutes to play on a 3-point play, forcing a timeout. A Tatum two out of the timeout pushed the lead back to nine. Siakam would cut the lead to six with just under four to go, but Smart got himself to the line, converting one.

Lowry scored with two to play to cut it four with two left in the game, then got himself to the line a few plays later to cut the lead to 89-87 with a minute to play. The Raptors guard would foul Grant Williams, burning a challenge on the call, which would stand.

Williams missed them both, but Tatum would be fouled going after a loose ball, converting one. Walker would be fouled next, converting both for the 92-87 win, Boston advancing to the eastern Conference Finals to face the Miami Heat.

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Season ends for Danuel House after NBA finds ‘bubble’ protocol breach

“House is leaving the NBA campus and will not participate with the Rockets team in additional games this season,” the league writes.

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The Rockets will be without forward Danuel House Jr. for the remainder of the 2019-20 playoffs after the NBA concluded that he broke “bubble” protocols in an incident involving an unauthorized person at Houston’s team hotel. Per the league, he is leaving the Florida campus.

In nine playoff games, House averaged 11.4 points (35.8% on 3-pointers) and 5.8 rebounds in 31.0 minutes, and he was among the most athletic and versatile options for Houston’s switch-heavy defense.

In a statement issued Friday, the NBA wrote:

The NBA has concluded its investigation of a recent violation of campus health and safety protocols. The findings are that Danuel House had a guest in his hotel room over multiple hours on September 8 who was not authorized to be on campus. No evidence was found that other players or staff had contact with the guest or were involved in this incident.

House is leaving the NBA campus and will not participate with the Rockets team in additional games this season.

The discipline is much stronger than anticipated. On Wednesday, ESPN reported that House could potentially be out for the remainder of the team’s second-round series against the Los Angeles Lakers, with the likely discipline being a mandatory 10-day quarantine period.

However, the statement makes clear that House will not return at any point this season — even if Houston advances in the playoffs.

Per The Athletic, investigators had found “circumstantial evidence” suggesting that House violated protocols at Houston’s Disney World hotel by being in close contact with an unauthorized person. However, House denied any wrongdoing, and the woman in question (reportedly a COVID-19 testing official) denied his involvement, as well.

The circumstantial evidence seemingly involved “door data,” referring to a possible opening of the door to House’s hotel room during the time window in question, per the Houston Chronicle‘s Jonathan Feigen.

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While testing officials are allowed inside the bubble, they go in and out each day and (unlike players) do not live there. Thus, as with maintenance staff, the NBA has protocols in place to minimize the potential exposure of those workers to personnel living at the bubble.

The woman said she had contact with Rockets center Tyson Chandler (who also sat out Game 3 for personal reasons) and another player who wasn’t House, but the NBA’s probe reportedly cleared Chandler.

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It all makes for a confusing and embarrassing end to the season for House, who remains under contract with the Rockets for two more seasons. As long as Houston stays alive in the playoffs, his previous minutes will likely be filled by reserves Austin Rivers and Ben McLemore.

In Houston’s current second-round series, the Rockets were 1-1 in both games with House, and they led going to the fourth quarter in the lone loss. Meanwhile, they’re 0-2 against the Lakers without House, with both losses coming by double digits.

Saturday’s Game 5 between the Rockets and Lakers tips off at 7:00 p.m. Central, with a national TV broadcast on ESPN. If Houston loses that game, its 2019-20 season would come to an end.

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Game 5, Rockets vs. Lakers: How to watch and what to look for

“Obviously, it’s win or go home,” Russell Westbrook said of Game 5. “So you have to come out, and make sure you have that mindset.”

The Houston Rockets are down entering Saturday night’s Game 5 against the Los Angeles Lakers, but they aren’t out.

After three straight losses, the Rockets now trail their second-round playoff series by a 3-1 margin. Historically, out of more than 250 parallels, only 12 teams in NBA playoff history have overcome a 3-1 deficit to win a best-of-seven series. That said, one of those 12 happened just last week, when Denver crawled out of a 3-1 hole versus Utah.

Houston’s team leaders also have the benefit of personal experience to draw upon. Led by All-Star guard and MVP finalist James Harden, the Rockets overcame a 3-1 deficit in 2015 against the Los Angeles Clippers. Led by head coach Mike D’Antoni, the Phoenix Suns did it in 2006 against the Lakers. It’s difficult, but certainly not impossible.

“Obviously, it’s win or go home,” Russell Westbrook said after Thursday’s lethargic 110-100 loss in Game 4. “So you have to come out, and make sure you have that mindset. It’s one game at a time, especially here down in the bubble. It’s a different scenario than any other playoffs. We’ll be able to take our time and make sure we take advantage of our [smaller] size and our speed. We have to do it, if we want to win.”

It remains unclear if the Rockets will have the services of sixth man Danuel House Jr., who has missed the last two games courtesy of the NBA’s probe into an alleged breach of bubble protocol. D’Antoni said at Friday’s practice that the Rockets had “nothing new” on his status.

But even if House isn’t available, the Rockets aren’t using his situation as a crutch. “You know what, that’s a great excuse to trot out there,” said D’Antoni, who was asked if the bizarre situaton with House had contributed to his team’s apparent malaise. “We’re not doing that. No.”

With or without House, the primary focus for the Rockets is on fixing the “lack of spirit” that plagued them for most of Game 4.

“I think everybody knew that the energy we had throughout the game was unacceptable,” reserve guard Austin Rivers said. He continued:

They’ve got LeBron, probably the best player in basketball, by far, and then they’ve got Anthony Davis. You can’t play against that team and [have] those guys play harder than you, too. Then, you got no shot. If we’re going to beat them, we gotta play harder than them.

It’s going to take a lot of effort, and it’s not going to be perfect. We’re going to make mistakes. If we keep playing, we still believe we’re the better team. But we gotta go out there and prove that because, right now, they’ve been the better team.

“We have the recipe,” Rivers concluded. “Mike’s done a great job with that. It seems everybody right now is on the same page.”

Veteran forward P.J. Tucker, long known as a vocal leader, said he wasn’t even interested in watching film of Game 4. His comments:

I’m not even going to look at that game last night. That was one of those games you can flush. That wasn’t us. That’s not how we play.

It’s all about us. We’re beating ourselves and we know it.

“If our best shot’s not good enough, so be it,” D’Antoni said. “We have not given them, in three losses, our best shot. We need to get back to that.”

In Houston’s lone series win to date (Game 1), they broke even with the Lakers in rebounding, 41-41. In Thursday’s Game 4, they were outrebounded by a comical 52-26 discrepancy. Tucker and Robert Covington, who start in the frontcourt, had just three rebounds each.

Besides playing harder, the biggest tactical priority for the Rockets would seem to be getting their high-powered offense back on track. Houston scored just 41 points in the first half of Game 4, and Harden made only two field goals in the entire game. For the NBA’s No. 2 team in per-game scoring in the regular season, it was clearly a very bad night.

“You make adjustments, and then tomorrow, we’ve got to go execute,” said Rivers, who added that his team would make changes on offense.

D’Antoni said that Harden is usually making the right decisions out of traps and double-teams by the Lakers. However, Houston’s coach did note that there were some situations in which the Rockets would like Harden to be “a little bit more selfish” on offense.

In the grand scheme, having to successfully implement those changes for three straight games might sound overwhelming. It’s a lot to ask against the Lakers, who had the best record in the Western Conference all season (52-19) and were nearly 10 games better than the Rockets (44-28).

But from Houston’s perspective, they’re trying to simplify. They’re not interested in discussing Game 6, let alone a Game 7. For D’Antoni and the Rockets — clichéd as it may be — it’s one game, and one possession, at a time. “We’ve got one game,” D’Antoni said of the team’s approach. “It’s a one-game series. We’ve got to play to one game.”

Saturday’s Game 5 between the Rockets and Lakers tips off at 7:00 p.m. Central, with a national TV broadcast on ESPN. If the Rockets win, Game 6 would take place on Monday night. If Houston loses, its season ends in the second round of the playoffs for a second straight year.

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Report: Rockets ‘blindsided’ by NBA decisions on Danuel House Jr.

The Rockets have reportedly received no formal presentation of evidence, and they have had little direct communication with the NBA.

The Houston Rockets were reportedly “blindsided” this week by the NBA’s decision to hold sixth man Danuel House Jr. out of playoff games, since the league has yet to conclude whether he has broken any rules.

ESPN previously reported that the league was weighing the imposition of a potential 10-day quarantine period on House, which would likely make him unavailable for the rest of Houston’s second-round playoff series against the Los Angeles Lakers. The extended quarantine is due to the fear of a delayed positive test result for COVID-19 among any NBA player or staffer who breaks “bubble” protocols in Central Florida.

On Thursday night, Ben Golliver of The Washington Post cited sources who indicate that the Rockets believe House is being treated as “guilty until proven innocent.” In his story, Golliver writes:

People with knowledge of the situation, who were granted anonymity to speak candidly about the ongoing investigation, said that the Rockets were “blindsided” by the NBA’s decision and that there had been little direct communication between the league office and team officials and Houston had received no formal presentation of evidence. Instead, communication continues between the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association.

“The NBA is treating [House] as guilty until proven innocent for safety reasons,” said one person with knowledge of the situation. “They’re prioritizing their perception of safety over everything else. The NBPA feels its hands are tied. Any time [the union] talks about due process or presumption of guilt, [the NBA] immediately says, ‘Safety, safety, safety.’ There has to be some limit or balance.”

Per The Athletic, the NBA has “circumstantial evidence” suggesting that House violated protocols on Monday night at the team’s Disney World hotel by being in close contact with an unauthorized person. However, House denies any wrongdoing, and the woman in question (reportedly a COVID-19 testing official) has denied his involvement, as well.

The circumstantial evidence appears to involve “door data,” referring to a possible opening of the door to House’s hotel room during the time window in question, per the Houston Chronicle‘s Jonathan Feigen.

While testing officials are allowed inside the bubble, they go in and out each day and (unlike players) do not live there. Thus, as with maintenance staff, the NBA has protocols in place to minimize the potential exposure of those workers to personnel living at the bubble. The woman said she had contact with Tyson Chandler (who also sat out Game 3 for personal remains) and another player who wasn’t House, but the NBA’s probe reportedly cleared Chandler and is currently focused on House.

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Regardless of the league’s final decision, the storyline doesn’t appear likely to go away any time soon. Even if House is cleared, the Rockets as an organization would likely be frustrated that he was held out of Game 3 and Game 4 before the NBA’s probe had determined any guilt.

Moreover, the lingering investigation during a playoff series could potentially be a distraction for other players and coaches, as well.

Making matters worse, Golliver reports that as of Thursday night, the Rockets had “no indication” that House would be cleared before Saturday’s Game 5. Since the incident in question took place Monday night, a 10-day quarantine period would run until next Thursday.

In nine playoff games, the 6-foot-6 House has averaged 11.4 points (35.8% on 3-pointers) and 5.8 rebounds in 31.0 minutes, and he’s among the most athletic and versatile options for Houston’s switch-heavy defense. In Sunday’s Game 2, the 27-year-old had 13 points and five rebounds off the bench, and he hit 3-of-7 from 3-point range (42.9%).

With House unavailable during a 10-point loss in Game 3, only one Houston reserve (Jeff Green) scored, and the Los Angeles bench outscored those on the Rockets by a commanding 42-16 margin.

The Rockets were 1-1 against the Lakers in both games with House, and they led going to the fourth quarter in the lone loss. Meanwhile, they’re 0-2 without House, with both losses coming by double digits.

Saturday’s Game 5 between the Rockets and Lakers tips off at 7:00 p.m. Central, with a national TV broadcast on ESPN. If Houston loses that game, its 2019-20 season would come to an end.

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