This season, Philadelphia 76ers veteran Danuel House Jr. has missed consecutive games on two separate occasions. In early November, House was ruled out for games against the New York Knicks and the Phoenix Suns as he battled the flu.
After returning to the court for a 13-game stretch, House missed a few games after spending 20 minutes on the court facing his former team, the Houston Rockets, on December 5.
Due to a foot laceration, House missed Philadelphia’s matchups against the Los Angeles Lakers and the Charlotte Hornets. While the veteran forward was on pace to play against the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday night, a pregame setback caused House to go from being listed as probable on the injury report to doubtful.
Eventually, he was ruled out for the night.
Fortunately for the Sixers, House made his return on Friday night to face the Golden State Warriors. After going through the team’s morning shootaround and participating in pregame warmups, House avoided any last-minute setbacks before suiting up and playing.
“I’m good now,” said the veteran sharpshooter. “Of course, I got to get back to whipping myself into game movement. Other than that, I’m good.”
76ers head coach Doc Rivers thought House had an up-and-down night in terms of how he looked conditioning-wise. While Rivers believed that House was off to a rough start, he saw the veteran start to get his legs back underneath him after halftime.
“It’s tough for him,” said Rivers. “I thought in the second half he was better. We really wanted to use him, and I actually wanted to start him today just so we have more shooting on the floor, but he literally hadn’t played. We kept him out in the first quarter, literally, I kept him out on the floor a straight stretch literally for conditioning, and he knew what I was doing. So, it worked out.”
House checked into Friday’s game for a little over 15 minutes. During that time, he drained two of his four shots for six points and collected two rebounds. Friday’s matchup was his first set of game action in 12 days.
“I was iffy,” said House. “I trust (Doc Rivers), he’s the coach. He’s sitting there watching everything, but I told him we’re developing a relationship where we can communicate with one another, so he looked out for me and put me in there to kind of break stride and get into the flow of things. So, we’re cool.”
While conditioning is still a work in progress for House as he gets back into playing shape, the veteran confirmed his foot is feeling much better. After the game, House put in some additional work in the weight room as he grinds to get back to one-hundred percent.
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