Jabari Smith Jr. fractures hand, will miss at least 4-8 weeks

Jabari Smith Jr. fractures hand, will miss at least 4-8 weeks

Houston Rockets forward Jabari Smith Jr. fractured his left hand during shootaround on Friday ahead of their game against the Boston Celtics and will miss the next four-to-eight weeks, the team announced Friday.

The third-year forward played in all 33 games entering Friday, having only missed nine combined games in each of his first three seasons.

According to Danielle Lerner of The Houston Chronicle, the injury will require surgery, though the timetable for the surgery is dependent on another opinion to determine the severity.

Through 33 games, Smith is averaging 11.9 points, 6.5 rebounds and one block on 43.5 percent shooting, including 35.4 percent from 3-point range and 86.7 percent from the free-throw line. The polarizing forward’s scoring numbers are a career low, as are his total rebounding percentage, defensive rebounding percentage and assist percentage.

The Rockets have a ton of young depth on the bench to help mitigate Smith’s absence, even though he’s one of their best defenders. It starts with Amen Thompson and Cam Whitmore, in addition to Tari Eason (when he’s healthy). They can also get contributions from veteran Jeff Green plus Jae’Sean Tate.

There are options, but, unfortunately, the 21-year-old suffered an injury not even during the game. The details of how have yet to be released, but it may not matter in the end. Nevertheless, the Rockets are having an awesome start to the season despite owning one of the league’s worst halfcourt offenses. At 22-12, they are a 0.5 game behind the Memphis Grizzlies for the No. 2 seed in the West while being two games ahead of the Los Angeles Lakers and 2.5 ahead of the Denver Nuggets and Dallas Mavericks.

***

Click Here for more NBA Content

Subscribe to Vendetta’s Twitch

Subscribe to Vendetta’s YouTube

Check out the Vendetta Shop

Check out Vendetta Fantasy Contests