Houston Rockets seem to have a small bug flying around the Toyota Center. It’s a little annoying thing that just happened to make its way to infect some Rockets players with an ailment they can’t seem to knock. The ‘injury bug’ has infected Houston and it appears a key member of their rotation, 7 foot reserve big man Donatas Motiejunas, will not recover from the bite anytime soon.
Following from USA Today’s Sam Amick.
According to a person with knowledge of the situation, forward Donatas Motiejunas is out for the season with a back injury.
The 24-year-old who has missed the past six games was expected to miss a week or two with the back pain, but he is not expected to return until next season. The person spoke to USA TODAY Sports on the condition of anonymity because the diagnosis had not yet been announced.
The third-year Rockets power forward was in the midst of a breakout season. Motiejunas took advantage of his increased playing time due to the injuries of Dwight Howard and Terrence Jones. D-Mo was averaging a career-high 12 points and six rebounds in 29 minutes per game while shooting over 50 percent from the field and 37 percent from three-point range.
Houston just got back Dwight Howard from injury and all looked to be going well in Houston. Then, unexplainably they got decimated all over again. Rockets starting point guard Patrick Beverley went down with a wrist injury, he’s now slated to miss the remainder of the season into the summer. Terrence Jones suffered a punctured lung and missed some time as well, but he has recently returned.
Now, with this recent news of Motiejunas going down with a back injury, it’s just going to put more of a load on Terrence Jones Jones and midseason acquisition Josh Smith will also see more playing time.
It’s unfortunate that Motiejunas is the latest member of the Rockets to miss significant time with injuries. He was really going to be a pivotal part in the Rockets playoff push and was expected to building on top of his solid season going into the postseason. The Rockets are in second place in the West despite the injuries, which has earned star guard James Harden an immense amount of MVP consideration.
