Brett Davis-USA Today Sports
The Houston Rockets fought back pretty valiantly in the fourth quarter of their Game 2 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, but came up just short. Regardless of their effort however, the Rockets now trail the Thunder 2-0 and their starting point guard could be sidelined for Saturday’s Game 3 contest back in Houston.
Jeremy Lin is labeled as a questionable and game-time decision for Saturday and according to a number of reports, he is “hoping” that he will be able to suit up. Lin was banged up in their Game 2 loss on Wednesday night and sat out the entire second half with a chest contusion. Now, despite the late game absence of Lin, Rockets’ fans should be pretty pleased with the play and production of Patrick Beverly on Wednesday night. Beverly got the start and logged 41 minutes, scoring 16 points, grabbing 12 rebounds and dishing out six assists in the process. In addition, Beverly was also an absolute pest on defense in guarding Thunder star Russell Westbrook.
However, let’s go back to Lin, his injury and his overall struggles because it certainly has not been the postseason start that he or the Rockets had envisioned. Houston is the No. 8 seed out west, so expectations of upsetting the Thunder are not all that high. However, Lin’s personal expectations were.
After scoring just four points on 1-of-7 shooting in Game 1 of the series, Lin had seven points on 3-of-7 shooting in 20 minutes of action on Wednesday night. The injury obviously derailed those numbers in Game 2, but statistically he is averaging a whopping 5.5 points per game this postseason. He’s also a collective 4-of-14 from the field.
Now even if Lin can go on Saturday night, we know that he will not at 100% and this comes in a contest in which the Rockets are looking to avoid falling down 3-0. I guess we will have to wait and see if Lin can work through the pain and produce if he plays on Saturday night.
Follow Paul Seaver on Twitter: @PaulSeaverRS
