Houston Rockets star James Harden is expected to play against the Minnesota Timberwolves Sunday night, according to head coach Mike D'Antoni.
D'Antoni revealed that Harden's cervical strain came back after Deandre Ayton's foul in their match-up with the Phoenix Suns last Friday. The 67-year-old coach, however, confirmed that their All-Star guard “left feeling good” following his game-day treatment.
Harden likely to play, D'Antoni said.
— Jonathan Feigen (@Jonathan_Feigen) March 17, 2019
The reigning league MVP has been dealing with a cervical strain which he initially suffered in a game against the Los Angeles Lakers last month. He has missed a couple of games because of the injury.
Moreover, the said injury has been one of the major reasons for James Harden's shooting struggles. His 32-game streak of with at least 30 points was snapped because of it.
With the regular season ending in a couple of weeks, the Rockets are trying to gain momentum, and they need Harden to play if they want to do that. However, if the injury is re-aggravated, he could miss a significant amount of time and it could cause a fatal blow to Houston's championship hopes.
The Rockets were one game away from the NBA Finals last season, but an injury to Chris Paul cost them the Western Conference Finals against the Golden State Warriors.
Harden isn't the only Rockets player to be hit by the injury bug this season, as Paul and Clint Capela missed a number of games due to injuries as well.
At full strength, there's no doubt that Houston is one of the best teams in the entire league, but they will have to find a way be at 100 percent if they want to make a deep run in the playoffs.
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