The Houston Rockets will have to make do without Alperen Sengun for the foreseeable future.
Head coach Ime Udoka told reporters on Monday that the star forward will be sidelined for "probably 10 to 14 days" due to an ankle injury.
Udoka added that the Rockets will re-evaluate Sengun's status at the end of the week, but they "need to get the swelling, pain tolerance down."
The Turkish big man suffered the injury less than a minute into the Rockets loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday. Sengen turned his right ankle on the foot of Mavs centre Daniel Gafford while coming down with a rebound. The 23-year-old immediately appeared to be in discomfort and continued grimacing as he gingerly made his way to Houston's bench.
The Rockets officially ruled out Sengun for the rest of the contest just after halftime, as he logged just one rebound in his lone minute of action. Backup centre Clint Capela started in Sengun's place to begin the third quarter. Meanwhile, Houston was already playing without its other reserve big man, Steven Adams, because of a sprained ankle.
Sengun entered the night averaging career-highs of 22.6 points and 6.7 assists to go with 9.3 rebounds, 1.5 steals and 1.0 blocks, breaking out even further in Year 5 after making the all-star team last season.
It goes without saying that the 21-11 Rockets will miss Sengun if he were to be out for an extended period of time, as he ranks second on the team in average points and steals, while leading the squad in rebounds, assists and blocks.
