James Harden suffered a strained hamstring on New Year’s Eve in a game against the Lakers and has not played for the Rockets yet in 2018, but Houston got some good news regarding his status recently.
Harden was ruled out for at least two weeks before he would be reevaluated, which meant Sunday was our first chance to get an update on his injury. Mike D’Antoni told reporters on Sunday the hope was to have their MVP candidate back in the lineup by the end of the week, either against the Timberwolves on Thursday or the Warriors on Saturday.
Rockets coach Mike D'Antoni says James Harden (hamstring) could return as soon as Thursday against the Timberwolves or Saturday against the Warriors. https://t.co/OprONb25Th
— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) January 14, 2018
Considering those games are against two of the top four teams in the Western Conference, it would be a good time for the Rockets to be at full strength. Harden went through some of practice on Sunday and if he could return it would be a major boost for a team that’s sputtered a bit of late, going 4-2 without Harden and 5-7 over their last 11 games to slide back to 30-11 on the season, three games back of the Warriors in the West.
The good news is that the Rockets have won their last two games and Chris Paul appears to be in top form, with a strong stretch of games including one of his best games of the year against the Blazers with 37 points, 11 assists and seven rebounds. Considering Paul’s injury problems early and Harden’s recent absence, the Rockets would like to see a long stretch of both stars healthy going into the playoffs.
