Houston Rockets Injury News: Terrence Jones Hospitalized Over Night with Rib Injury

Houston Rockets Injury News: Terrence Jones

The Toyota Center showcased a game Thursday night between their home town Rockets and the visiting Denver Nuggets. At half time the franchise held a special commemoration of the back-to-back Houston Rockets Championship teams of 1993-94 and 1994-95.

While the night provided fans and players alike with a trip down memory lane to the best times in Clutch City it also provided ample inspiration for MVP candidate James Harden who captured a career high 50 points en route to a win over the Nuggets.

What dampened the perfect evening was a scary play that occurred at 4:18 of the first quarter. Power forward Terrence Jones and Kenneth Faried simultaneously dove for a loose ball on the floor. In the replay video it’s hard to decipher if it was Faried’s knee or elbow (or both) that made contact into the mid section of Jones who was visibly in pain immediately.

Jones remained on the court for approximately :40 seconds, however he repeatedly kept touching the left side of his lower ribcage. When he finally left the court he was walking slumped forward. Different reports had him leaving the facility on a stretcher in an ambulance.

Looking back at last season you may recall Andrew Bogut suffered a rib injury that held him out of post game play as doctors were concerned the fractured rib could shift and puncture his lung (great article on Bogut’s injury here). Arguably Bogut’s injury ended Golden State’s playoff run last season. Let’s all say a prayer for Terrence to be okay and cross a fingers his rib isn’t fractured as the typical time for an injury of that nature to heal is 6 weeks.

Jones was taken to the hospital where he will be held overnight for closer observation. These type of injuries can seem less critical via the eye test but in reality are often more dangerous given a cracked or broken rib can cause damage to internal organs.

Terrence Jones to stay st hospital overnight with rib injury. McHale said will be out "for a little bit."

— Jonathan Feigen (@Jonathan_Feigen) March 20, 2015

Even though it was just the first quarter Jones had already notched 10 points on 4 of 5 shooting with 2 rebounds. With the loss of Jones and Dwight Howard still out the Rockets will be very thin up front and will require Joey Dorsey, Josh Smith and Donatas Motiejunas to step up in their absences.

McHale said in his post game report he was reluctant to comment further on Jones except to say he would be held overnight for further tests and observations.

For more on the special commemorative night and James Harden‘s career setting 50-point performance check out the post game Rocket Science report by Lee Golden and the commemorative celebration highlight article by Trey Oursler.

Next: Rockets living in the land beyond the arc?

More from Space City Scoop

Home/Rockets News