{"id":516664,"date":"2026-01-04T19:45:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T19:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/516664\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T19:45:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T19:45:11","slug":"how-big-a-problem-is-senguns-injury-for-the-rockets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/516664\/","title":{"rendered":"How Big A Problem Is Sengun’s Injury For The Rockets?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Houston Rockets fell to the Dallas Mavericks<\/a> on Saturday night, 110-104. The bigger concern for Houston is that All-Star center Alperen Sengun<\/a> went down just over a minute into the game. This comes just two games after returning from his last absence. Is this just the nature of being a big body in the bustling NBA?<\/p>\n

How Big A Problem Is Sengun\u2019s Injury For The Rockets?<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old Sengun has enjoyed mostly good health through his young career. His only significant injury came in the 2023-24 season. He missed 19 games total and sat out the remainder of the season after sustaining a grade-three sprain in his right ankle.<\/p>\n

Once again, it is Sengun\u2019s right ankle that is giving him trouble. This time, he clearly rolled it, vying for a defensive rebound<\/a> against Dallas\u2019 Daniel Gafford<\/a>. Currently, he\u2019s listed<\/a> as only day-to-day. Houston\u2019s next game will be a home game against the Phoenix Suns on Monday night<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Houston\u2019s Next Game<\/p>\n

Phoenix isn\u2019t a team that Houston can\u2019t beat without Sengun, by any means. They\u2019ve had some practice recently, adding to a win streak without him<\/a>. Still, the Suns are 20-14 in the competitive Western Conference. Former Rocket Dillon Brooks<\/a> is thus far enjoying a career year with his new squad. He\u2019s averaging a career-high 21.4 points per game as effectively the second option after Devin Booker<\/a>. Showing that injury troubles aren\u2019t just for bigs, Jalen Green<\/a>, the other key piece in the Kevin Durant<\/a> trade, has been out\u00a0with a hamstring injury<\/a>. Green has appeared in just two games for the team, both in early November<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Suns aren\u2019t a big team like the Mavericks. Oft-injured center Mark Williams<\/a> has admittedly looked like an excellent offseason addition<\/a> for the franchise. Per 36 minutes, Williams is averaging 19.4 points, 12.5 rebounds, and 4.8 offensive rebounds. But he only actually plays 24 minutes a game. They\u2019ve also been starting six-foot-six Royce O\u2019Neal<\/a> at power forward.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s Not Easy Being Big<\/p>\n

Against the Mavericks, the Rockets were also missing backup center and occasional starter Steven Adams<\/a>. When Sengun went down just one minute into the game, the floodgates opened for Dallas\u2019 bigs. Anthony Davis<\/a> knows something about the injury woes of NBA big men. In this game, Davis showed that, when healthy, he\u2019s still one of the most impactful two-way players in the league. He had 26 points on 9 of 15 shooting, to go with 12 rebounds and 5 blocks. Durant had 34 points of his own, but it wasn\u2019t enough to overcome Davis\u2019 stifling effect on the rest of Houston\u2019s offense.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

A particular concern for Houston will be that Jabari Smith Jr.<\/a>\u2019s offense was seemingly impacted by his increased load on defense. Smith and Clint Capela<\/a> had to cover the center position against the Mavs. He went just 2 of 13 from the field and finished with a plus\/minus of -11. Perhaps the unexpected nature of the assignment was partly to blame. Hopefully, Houston won\u2019t need to rely on Smith at center anyway, but if they do, they\u2019ll need a much better showing from him. Even if Sengun is available for the next game, it probably won\u2019t be long before he\u2019s dinged up again.<\/p>\n

Big men are the most commonly injured players in the NBA. For one thing, defenses can be far more physical with them than with smaller players. More importantly, they\u2019re always leaping around in high traffic areas like under the rim, trying to go for blocks and rebounds. Even the ground-bound Nikola Jokic<\/a> recently proved no longer immune from the rigors of NBA front-court life. Jokic is currently expected to miss four weeks<\/a> with a left knee hyperextension.<\/p>\n

The Last Word<\/p>\n

Between a rapidly increasing pace and a resolutely never-reducing schedule, NBA injury risk is higher than ever. Bigs get the worst of it, though. Houston\u2019s team is built around an All-Star center with a backup who gets held out of back-to-backs in Adams. Of the NBA\u2019s nominal contenders, they\u2019re among the most vulnerable. The good news for Rockets fans is that Sengun is young, and the Rockets are deep. Houston is undoubtedly known for its problems. However, unless Sengun\u2019s injury troubles become more frequent,\u00a0 just put it down to the normal perils of being an NBA big man.<\/p>\n

Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Houston Rockets fell to the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday night, 110-104. The bigger concern for Houston is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":516665,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3794],"tags":[1307,495,7,292,194,4066,2497,6,211,962],"class_list":{"0":"post-516664","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-rockets","8":"tag-alperen-sengun","9":"tag-anthony-davis","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-houston","12":"tag-houston-rockets","13":"tag-houstonrockets","14":"tag-jabari-smith-jr","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-rockets","17":"tag-steven-adams"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115838551747968537","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516664","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=516664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/516665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}