- Injuries to Jabari Smith and Tari Eason have opened up rotation minutes over the past two weeks for veteran forward Jae’Sean Tate, per Danielle Lerner of The Houston Chronicle. Tate, who has been with the Rockets since the start of their rebuild, enables the team to keep a strong defensive lineup on the court at all times. “It’s definitely always fun to play, but at the end of the day, we want to win as many games as we can,” he said. “We are dealing with a couple injuries right now, and we just have to have that next man up (mentality) until we get our guys back. So until that happens, I’m ready, and we’ll see what happens.”