WASHINGTON, D.C. – While his teammates are starting a two-game road trip, Rockets starting power forward Terrence Jones will remain in Houston working out.
For Jones, the frustration of being out again for an injury comes not at the start of the season but near the ending.
Jones will miss an undetermined amount of time as he deals with pain associated with a collapsed lung.
He suffered the injury in a victory over the Denver Nuggets on March 19 adding to the ledger of his health issues.
After playing in the first four games of the season, Jones missed the next 41 with nerve inflammation in his left leg.
“I feel the last situation was way more serious, a long-term injury than this one was,” he said. “It just makes it a lot easier to handle.”
There was some concern his season would be over before it really started, but the third-year power forward from Kentucky returned on Jan. 28 and scored 10 points and grabbed five rebounds in a victory over the Dallas Mavericks.
Jones thought his injury issues were behind him and he excelled in the front court as he regained his starting job. He produced four consecutive games with double-digit rebounds, and when the team was missing center Dwight Howard, players such as Jones stepped up their games in the front court.
On the season, Jones was averaging 12.4 points and 7.3 rebounds through 25 games.
It seemed things were moving smoothly until Jones was injured in the first half against the Suns. He tried to play through the pain, but just couldn’t and eventually needed a wheelchair to take him to the ambulance.
He spent two nights in the hospital and received visits and calls from teammates.
“I couldn’t wait to get out, I was in there asking 'When is my check-out date?' every second,” Jones said. “I’m just happy. A couple of my teammates came and supported me and I talked to them by phone or text to still have that same support for me. I’m just happy to be more active so quickly.”
On Thursday, four days after suffering the injury, Jones started working out, and while his lung is healed, the pain tolerance for the next couple of days will be an issue until he returns. The slightest touch causes pain.
As time moves along, Jones feels better and his return couldn’t come quickly enough for the Rockets, who not only have Howard back after missing eight weeks with a swollen knee, but have lost power forward Donatas Motiejunas (lower back pain) for a week.
Jones is hopeful he can return in a week himself and put the injury bug behind him, again.
“It was very painful, very hard to breathe, especially when it happened,” he said. “It was real tough to breathe and now that I’m able to do that, just working on that pain to go down and keep working out.”