The Houston Rockets were without starting center Dwight Howard in Saturday's contest against the Dallas Mavericks.
Howard received platelet-rich protein therapy on his right knee Thursday to treat a strain. Rockets head coach Kevin McHale said that Howard's timeline to return is uncertain, and is considered day-to-day.
Losing Howard for a significant stretch would put the Rockets in a serious bind, as he is integral to the Rockets' success on both ends of the floor. Without Howard, the Rockets have no interior presence to provide timely rim-protection and no true low-post presence.
Howard's importance is underlined in his plus-minus metrics. The Rockets allow just 90 points per 100 possessions with Howard on the court. That figure jumps to 100.6 without Howard. Similarly, their net rating is +13.7 with Howard as compared to -4 with Howard on the bench.
In Howard's stead, center Tarik Black started for the Rockets on Saturday, as Houston beat their in-state rivals Dallas 95-92.
Howard is averaging 18.8 points and 11.3 rebounds per game on 57.5 percent shooting from the floor this season.