Getty Chris Paul, James Harden and Clint Capela
The Houston Rockets received some good news coming out of the NBA All-Star break. With a big matchup against the Los Angeles Lakers on tap for their first game back, it’s expected that center Clint Capela will return to the mix. The Rockets big man missed 15 games due to ligament damage in his thumb and he remains on track to suit up Thursday night.
ESPN’s Tim MacMahon first reported the news and cited that Capela was able to get in a practice with the team on Tuesday. The 24-year-old wore a wrap during practice but said he felt good after and was ready to go, per ESPN.
“It felt great,” said Capela, who was wearing a black wrap to protect the thumb during Tuesday’s practice. “I was really happy about it, so now I’m ready to go.”
The Rockets were incredibly thin up front after Capela’s injury and signed Kenneth Faried following his buyout from the Brooklyn Nets. Faried played great as a member of the team’s starting five and it’s expected that he’ll still see a decent workload with Capela returning. Through 12 games with Houston, he’s averaged career-bests in points (15.9), rebounds (10.3) and shooting percentage (62.5 percent)
We’re going to take a look at the updated roster and starting lineup for the Rockets in the matchup with the Lakers which marks the start of the final stretch of the regular season.
Rockets Roster & Starting Lineup vs. Lakers
| Position | Expected Starter | Backup | |
| Center | Clint Capela | Kenneth Faried | Nene Hilario |
| Power Forward | P.J. Tucker | Gary Clark | |
| Small Forward | Eric Gordon | Gerald Green | |
| Shooting Guard | James Harden | ||
| Point Guard | Chris Paul | Austin Rivers |
Although the Rockets are finally trending towards being back to 100 percent, they will be without one of their new additions for the road trip. As Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle reported, Iman Shumpert will miss the game against the Lakers and also Saturday’s matchup with the Golden State Warriors due to a sore knee.
Forward Iman Shumpert will be out against the Lakers on Thursday and against the Warriors on Saturday with a sore right knee and then will be re-evaluated next week before the Rockets play the Hawks on Monday to start a stretch of three games in four nights.
Thursday would have marked the first time since December 11 that the team had their full rotation available for a game, per Feigen. With Shumpert sidelined, this means Austin Rivers and Gerald Green will log heavy minutes off the bench as the team’s only backup small forward/guard options.
It’s also unknown currently whether Capela will be eased back into the action during his first game on the floor since the injury. Assuming his finger checked out fine and he’s close to 100 percent, he should log decent minutes and there’s a chance he and Faried could share the frontcourt together at times.
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