HOUSTON (SportsRadio 610)- Jabari Smith Jr was going through dummy defensive coverages with player development staff on Jan. 3 during the Rockets morning shootaround when he got hit on the left hand.
It didn’t seem like a big deal at the time, but the pain got worse as the day wore on. As it turned out, Smith fractured the left metacarpal on his left hand.
“It was just a freak type of accident,” Smith said Thursday. “It was just an unfortunate event, really nothing we could have done to prevent it.”
The unfortunate event forced Smith to miss the last 22 games, but he returned to practice on Thursday and the expectation is that he’ll play Friday when the Rockets host the Minnesota Timberwolves.
“He’s been out for a while, so we love him,” Rockets center Alperen Sengun said. “He’s given everything to this team.”
Smith’s 12 point, 6.5 rebounds per game don’t jump off the stat page, but the Rockets have missed his presence.
Houston was 22-11 with a 105.8 defensive rating, second best in the NBA, before Smith’s injury, but without Smith, the Rockets are just 12-10 with a defensive rating that has skyrocketed to 114.7, 18th best.
In that span, the Rockets have gone from 11th in defensive rebounding rate to 25th, and opponents are shooting 69.9 percent on shots from inside the restricted area, after converting on just 62.1 percent of those shots before got hurt.
“The thing that hurt us significantly has been our rebounding numbers, defensively,” Rockets head coach Ime Udoka said. “That's due to his size and obviously athleticism and length and all those things, but also some other guys being played in different spots.
“We had Amen (Thompson) near the basket (before Smith got hurt), where we're having him on guards (without Smith), and so him and Tari (Eason) and guys like that guarding wings and guards has been affecting being around the basket getting some rebounds.”
Smith had only missed nine of the first 197 games of his NBA career, so spending seven weeks on the sideline, the longest stretch he has ever missed going back to high school and college was a foreign experience.
“It was a tough period for me, but I'm glad I'm through it,” Smith said. “I got through it, and I'm just ready to finish season strong.”
Udoka said he did not know if Smith would return to the Rockets starting lineup on Friday, but he will not be on any sort of restriction and should be available for Saturday’s game in Salt Lake City.
“He looked fresh,” Udoka said of how Smith practiced on Thursday. “It was a reminder of the things he does at his size and with his length and athleticism, shooting ability, so it will be good to have him back.”