{"id":622843,"date":"2026-02-24T23:18:26","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T23:18:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/622843\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T23:18:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T23:18:26","slug":"amen-thompson-to-miss-at-least-one-game-for-rockets-with-quad-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/622843\/","title":{"rendered":"Amen Thompson to miss at least one game for Rockets with quad injury"},"content":{"rendered":"

Feb. 24, 2026, 3:15 p.m. CT<\/p>\n

HOUSTON — The good news for the Rockets (35-21) is that they\u2019ve risen to the No. 3 spot<\/a> in the Western Conference standings<\/a>, and next on the schedule is a visit from the last-place Sacramento Kings<\/a> (13-46).<\/p>\n

The bad news is that Houston will be without one of its most important players for Wednesday\u2019s game at Toyota Center.<\/p>\n

Amen Thompson is listed as out with tendinitis in his left left quadricep, according to a pregame injury report<\/a> issued Tuesday. Thompson, 23, had played and started in 55 of Houston\u2019s previous 56 games, though he did leave the court early during Monday\u2019s blowout victory<\/a> over the Utah Jazz<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Thompson, 23, is averaging 17.4 points (50.9% FG), 7.6 rebounds, 5.3 assists, and 1.5 steals in 37.2 minutes per game this season, and he remains a dynamic defender, as well. His minutes total ranks second in the entire NBA, as Houston relies heavily on Thompson for both defense and rim pressure.<\/p>\n

When Thompson missed a Feb. 7 game<\/a> at Oklahoma City due to illness, he was replaced in the starting lineup by second-year guard Reed Sheppard.<\/p>\n

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Once veteran floor general Fred VanVleet was lost to an ACL tear<\/a>, Thompson and Sheppard were next in line when it comes to ball-handling and playmaking duties. So, with Thompson out, it appears likely that Sheppard will again start, followed by either veteran Aaron Holiday or fourth-year guard JD Davison as the primary backup.<\/p>\n

The Rockets have yet to indicate the amount of time they expect Thompson to miss.<\/p>\n

With another game looming Thursday versus the Magic, it\u2019s possible Wednesday\u2019s absence could be precautionary. Perhaps Houston doesn\u2019t want to use Thompson for two games in 24 hours, and in that scenario, the Kings at home are a much easier opponent than a trip to Orlando (30-26) on night two of a back-to-back.<\/p>\n

Or, perhaps there\u2019s more severity to it, and the absence turns into multiple games. We\u2019ll learn more when head coach Ime Udoka speaks to the media about two hours before Wednesday\u2019s game, which tips off at 7:00 p.m. Central.<\/p>\n

More: Rockets return to No. 3 in West as Jabari Smith Jr. silences Jazz<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb. 24, 2026, 3:15 p.m. CT HOUSTON — The good news for the Rockets (35-21) is that they\u2019ve…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3792],"tags":[72400,7,4056,6,986,477,4055,72742,72743,72799,72404,73667,72740,72559,73044,73771,72444,72422,72666,72811,72414,72406,72465,1928,72403],"class_list":{"0":"post-622843","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sacramento-kings","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-kings","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-sacramento","13":"tag-sacramento-kings","14":"tag-sacramentokings","15":"tag-sstssportsnbarockets","16":"tag-sstsnrockets","17":"tag-tagamen-thompson","18":"tag-tagbasketball","19":"tag-tagfred-vanvleet","20":"tag-taghouston","21":"tag-taghouston-rockets","22":"tag-tagime-udoka","23":"tag-tagjd-davison","24":"tag-tagnational-sports","25":"tag-tagnba","26":"tag-tagoverall-negative","27":"tag-tagreed-sheppard","28":"tag-tagsacramento-kings","29":"tag-tagsports-news","30":"tag-tagutah-jazz","31":"tag-tx","32":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116128166994276101","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622843","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=622843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}