National Basketball Association

Report: Rockets F Motiejunas out for season with back injury

Published Apr. 8, 2015 4:39 p.m. ET

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The Houston Rockets recently lost point guard Patrick Beverley for the remainder of the 2015 season, and Kevin McHale’s team just took another significant hit.

According to Sam Amick of USA Today Sports, power forward Donatas Motiejunas will be sidelined due to a back injury.

Motiejunas had missed Houston’s last six outings, and his unavailability added one more problem to a frontcourt that has struggled to stay healthy during the 2014-15 campaign.

The Rockets have slowly integrated Dwight Howard back into the lineup following a knee injury, while Terrence Jones has missed 49 season games. Additionally, Kostas Papanikolaou hasn’t played since Feb. 21.

Houston will rely on midseason acquisition Josh Smith to fill the void left by Motiejunas. Smith, who has come off the bench for a majority of his time with the Rockets, has tallied 11.7 points, 6.0 rebounds and 1.2 blocks throughout 50 appearances.

Smith will be challenged immediately, since Houston enters a back-to-back contests against the streaking San Antonio Spurs. The defending champions will host the Rockets on April 8 before the matchup moves to Houston on April 10.

Motiejunas ends his third NBA campaign setting all career-high marks, averaging 28.7 minutes, 12.0 points, 5.9 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 0.8 steals and 0.5 blocks.

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