The Houston Rockets are set to shut down Russell Westbrook for the remainder of the seeding games in the NBA’s Orlando Bubble. The team announced that Westbrook suffered a strained muscle in his right quadriceps, and as a result, he will not appear in the team’s seeding game finale against the Philadelphia 76ers on Friday evening.
#Rockets announced that Russell Westbrook underwent an MRI in Orlando for a quadriceps injury. The results revealed a strained quadriceps muscle in his right leg. Westbrook will be out Friday against PHI and his status will be re-evaluated before the playoffs start next week.
— Alykhan Bijani (@Rockets_Insider) August 12, 2020
Westbrook had previously been day-to-day with the quad issue in the Bubble, which cost him games against both the Los Angeles Lakers and the Sacramento Kings, although he did play 27 minutes in the team’s loss to the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday. As the release says, the team will evaluate Westbrook prior to the start of the postseason.
Houston is currently in a seeding battle in the middle of the Western Conference, and heading into Wednesday’s game against the Indiana Pacers, it sat in fourth place, 1.5 games behind the Denver Nuggets in third and a game up on the Oklahoma City Thunder in fifth. Westbrook is critical to the chaotic style the Rockets have adopted since the NBA’s trade deadline, so while they would assuredly want him to be able to go right now, it is far more important to make sure he is at 100 percent during the postseason, something that is especially true in the event they make it through the first round and presumably run into one of the Los Angeles squads.
