Report: Could Terrence Jones Return Next Week?

With last night’s win over the Minnesota Timberwolves, your Houston Rockets have now clinched a playoff spot for the third straight season!

We all knew it was going to happen but I’m sure we were all biting our nails and crossing our fingers wondering when that was going to be

As the Rockets were able to share such great news for the franchise, there may be some more that overshadows the bad.

Digest this.

Terrence Jones is back to working out again and is eager to make his return back to the team!

According to Jenny Dial Creeh of the Houston Chronicle, Jones said that he has been working out the past two days.

If all goes well, he may be cleared to practice and could be back as early as next week!

"“I have to talk to the training staff,” Jones told Creech. “I worked out yesterday. I worked out today and throughout the weekend and hopefully if things go well, I can get a couple of practices and maybe be there next week.”"

He also mentioned that the issue was his difficulty breathing after the injury and the pain associated with the injury.

"“It was very painful, very hard to breathe, especially when it happened,” Jones said. “Now that I can do that, I want to work on the pain going down and be able to work out.”"

Jones suffered the injury March 19 against the Denver Nuggets when he was going for a loose ball when Kenneth Faried inadvertently kneed him in the chest causing him to tumble the floor grimacing in pain.

After spending some time in the hospital, he was diagnosed with partially collapsed lung as a result of the injury.

This comes as positive news for the front line as word came out that Donatas Motiejunas will be out one to two weeks because of soreness/tightness in his back.

But no need to fear, Dwight Howard is back but is being worked in slowly so the guys left standing will have to step up until TJones gets back.

Because honestly, once Jones does return, the Rockets will be fine with Howard/Jones manning the paint.

As a sign of encouragement, Howard did have 18 points, four rebounds, two steals and one block in 19 minutes of action in Friday night’s 120-110 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves.

In other roster news, as expected, the Rockets have called up power forward/center Clint Capela from the Rio Grande Valley Vipers as a reinforcement with the limited bodies they have on the bench.

Capela has yet to score his first NBA point but has averaged 16.1 PPG, 9.7 RPG and 2.97 BPG through 38 games — 32 starts — this season.