Dwight Howard sits out vs. Knicks

The Houston Rockets wanted to play it safe with Dwight Howard's return from injury, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

Or, so it seemed.

The plan, originally, was to rest Howard for the second night of back-to-backs, but the Rockets have upgraded his status to "maybe" for Saturday's game against the New York Knicks.

At the last second, however, the Rockets ruled out Howard and elected to start Clint Capela instead.

Howard played 26 minutes in the Rockets' loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday night. He sat out the first half of a back-to-back set earlier this season while recovering from a knee injury.

The Rockets have stumbled to a 5-8 record after reaching the Western Conference finals last season. They rank in the bottom 10 in both defensive and offensive rating, which ultimately costed former head coach Kevin McHale his job.

Interim coach J.B. Bickerstaff has guided the team to a 1-1 record since taking over, but it trailed by double-digits in both games and the lone victory was salvaged by James Harden's 45-point explosion versus the backpedaling Portland Trail Blazers.

Houston is all-in this season, and can't risk falling further behind in the standings.

The 11-year veteran is averaging 13.8 points, 13.6 rebounds, and two blocks per game while shooting 62.5 percent from the field.