{"id":427521,"date":"2026-01-21T10:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T10:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/427521\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T10:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T10:30:08","slug":"rockets-steven-adams-out-indefinitely-with-ankle-sprain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/427521\/","title":{"rendered":"Rockets’ Steven Adams out indefinitely with ankle sprain"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Michael C. WrightJan 21, 2026, 10:35 AM<\/p>\n

Close<\/a>Joined ESPN in 2010
\nPreviously covered Bears for ESPN.com
\nPlayed college football at West Texas A&M<\/p>\n

HOUSTON — Rockets<\/a> center Steven Adams<\/a> will be out indefinitely due to a sprained left ankle, coach Ime Udoka revealed before Tuesday’s 111-106 win<\/a> over the Spurs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Severely sprained ankle,” Udoka said. “I think [it’s] a Grade 3 or so, but still gathering information, opinions. But I don’t think he’ll be back anytime soon.”<\/p>\n

Adams suffered the injury Sunday in a win over the New Orleans Pelicans<\/a> while guarding Zion Williamson<\/a> at the rim. Sliding over to help Alperen Sengun<\/a> defend Williamson, Adams jumped to contest a shot from the Pelicans forward and immediately grabbed at his left ankle upon landing.<\/p>\n

Udoka said after the game that there was “a lot of swelling already, but nothing’s broken,” adding the injury is “not a high ankle sprain.”<\/p>\n

Adams, 32, is averaging 5.8 points and 8.6 rebounds in 22.8 minutes per game for a Rockets team that leads the NBA in rebounding (49.2 per game). No. 3 center Clint Capela<\/a> now takes over as the primary backup behind Sengun, and it’s likely Houston will also use forward Jabari Smith Jr<\/a>. at center in some of its lineups.<\/p>\n

In other injury news, forward Tari Eason<\/a> returned in Tuesday’s win, scoring two points in 20 minutes. Eason had sat out of the Rockets’ previous five games due to a sprained right ankle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael C. WrightJan 21, 2026, 10:35 AM CloseJoined ESPN in 2010 Previously covered Bears for ESPN.com Played college…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":427522,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-427521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=427521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}