Alperen Sengun returned to the floor on Friday night in Sacramento after a sprained ankle sidelined him for two weeks, and not surprisingly, the Rockets rookie center was a little rusty.
"Al-P seemed a little out of game rhythm," Rockets head coach Stephen Silas said after a 126-114 loss to the Kings. "He got his post ups and he was fine in there, but as far as the game part of it, just seemed out of rhythm to me."
Sengun played 14 minutes on Friday and scored nine points on four-of-six shooting. He grabbed four rebounds and dished out a pair of assists. The individual numbers were fine, but it was apparent to Silas that he and his teammates were trying to get re-acquainted on the fly.
"He was popping a lot," Silas said. "He can mix up his rolls and his pops. When he's on the floor it is different. Whether he's in the post, the low post, or has the ball up at the top of the floor, so we can't stand when he has the ball in either place an we have to get back to our ball movement, next action mentality when he has it up there."
The Rockets center admitted he was a little nervous on the ankle that forced him to miss seven games at the defensive end of the floor, but he was happy with his conditioning, crediting the work he put in with assistant coach John Lucas.
"I was feeling really good because I worked a lot (while injured), and I worked efficiently in that time period, and I'm really happy that I came back," he said through an interpreter.
Sengun and the Rockets will continue their five-game, west coast trip on Sunday when they play the second of two games in Sacramento.
