Injury Report<\/a>:<\/p>\nKeep this list handy for tonight\u2019s game.<\/p>\n
Houston: <\/p>\n
Out: Center – Steven Adams (ankle)<\/p>\n
Out: Guard – Fred VanVleet (ACL)<\/p>\n
Dallas:<\/p>\n
Out: Center – Kyrie Irving (ACL)<\/p>\n
Out: Guard – Derrick Lively II (foot)<\/p>\n
Out: Guard – Dante Exum (knee)<\/p>\n
On Houston\u2019s side, Fred VanVleet remains out for the season, and the Rockets have formed a full identity without their star point guard. His sideline role continues to be mentoring and developing rising young shooter Reed Sheppard, who grows more confident every week.<\/p>\n
Steven Adams will also sit on Saturday, due to a right ankle sprain he suffered in Monday night\u2019s game against the Pacers. Without him, Alperen \u015eeng\u00fcn, who returned this week after a brief absence, absorbs more minutes without another true center to rest him. Houston also loses some interior physicality and rebounding margin. However, the Rockets have proven they can compensate with pace control and collective effort.<\/p>\n
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For Dallas, there isn\u2019t much new, but the absence of core pieces continues to weigh heavily. While Irving has been out since last season, Lively\u2019s absence is still semi-fresh. He\u2019s been sidelined since late November due to a right foot injury that led to a season-ending surgery last month. Exum was ruled out for the season after a summer right knee surgery.<\/p>\n
With Irving and Exum out, Dallas\u2019 backcourt depth remains thin, forcing heavier minutes and ball-handling responsibility onto a limited rotation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Saturday, January 3, the Rockets (21-10) will head to Dallas to face off against the Mavericks (12-23).…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":515052,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3793],"tags":[6071,7168,7,686,149,4057,4882,866,292,967,166,6,1081,211,3709,962,490],"class_list":{"0":"post-515051","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas-mavericks","8":"tag-american-airlines-center","9":"tag-ankle-sprain","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-dallas","12":"tag-dallas-mavericks","13":"tag-dallasmavericks","14":"tag-dante-exum","15":"tag-fred-vanvleet","16":"tag-houston","17":"tag-kyrie-irving","18":"tag-mavericks","19":"tag-nba","20":"tag-reed-sheppard","21":"tag-rockets","22":"tag-space-city-home-network","23":"tag-steven-adams","24":"tag-the-mavericks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115834167333161509","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=515051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/515052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}