The Rockets got a bit of good news this morning when it was announced that James Harden returned to practice, but much of the optimism associated with that returned waned when it was also reported that Jeremy Lin had to leave practice early with a rolled ankle. Harden, as you might remember, played on a sprained ankle on Saturday night against the Mavericks, scoring 39 points in a losing effort, but was unable to participate in the team shootaround yesterday morning and missed the Monday night contest against the Spurs.

As I wrote last night, despite the minor nature of Harden's injury, ankle injuries are always a concern because they have a tendency to relapse and can limit a player's mobility long after he returns to the floor. However, as Harden notes himself, he's not a player that relies too heavily on his athleticism, and thus the ankle injury affects him less. Let's hope that Saturday night's performance is more or less indicative of what Harden can do in spite of injury.

We don't know much about the Lin injury yet, but to see him go down would be an absolute kick in the pants a day after his breakout 38 point performance. All reports are that the injury was relatively minor, but I would not be shocked to see Lin sit out tomorrow night's game with this injury, especially with the caution surrounding his injury history.