The Houston Rockets lost a key rotation player when Luc Mbah a Moute went down with an injury. How will Houston make up for his absence moving forward?

During the second quarter of their 108-96 win over the Charlotte Hornets, the Houston Rockets lost Luc Mbah a Moute to a shoulder injury after he landed awkwardly on a big dunk.

The Rockets were on cruise control when the injury happened and proceeded to win the game comfortably, but the team (and fans) are understandably concerned about how this injury will affect Houston moving forward.

According to ESPN‘s Adrian Wojnarowski, Mbah a Moute may not be out as long as some initially expected.

The news is a big relief for the Rockets for many reasons:

MRI on right shoulder of Houston Rockets forward Luc Mbah a Moute revealed no significant issues, and there's optimism that he could return within two-to-three weeks, league source tells ESPN. — Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) December 14, 2017

First, Houston relies on a nine-man rotation on most nights, and Mike D’Antoni is known for playing his key guys a lot of minutes, even down the stretch of games that aren’t particularly close. This is mainly due to the fact that he doesn’t trust the “garbage time” players at the end of the Rockets’ bench.

Mbah a Moute getting injured will most likely result in players like Trevor Ariza, P.J. Tucker and Eric Gordon receiving more minutes. For a team with lofty postseason expectations, playing key rotational players heavy minutes in the regular season (especially in comfortable wins) is never a good thing. Hopefully Troy Williams can recover from his own injury and crack the rotation, if only for a few stretches during games.

The other consequence of Mbah a Moute’s injury is that the Rockets are losing a high-quality defender. Mbah a Moute is posting a 2.0 defensive box plus-minus, and ranks ninth among all power forwards in real plus-minus, mainly due to his fourth-best defensive real plus-minus of 2.49.

Mbah a Moute has displayed his defensive versatility countless times this season, as he has the ability to both create turnovers playing off the ball or when switching onto a bigger offensive player:

Mbah a Moute was providing high-quality defense for the Rockets, and when combined with P.J. Tucker and Trevor Ariza, gave Houston three above-average wing defenders to throw at opposing wings.

In fact, the duo of Tucker and Mbah a Moute has posted a defensive rating of 94.0 in the 445 minutes the two have been on the floor together. Both Tucker and Mbah a Moute are mainstays in the top defensive lineups for the Rockets, so it will be interesting to see how Houston’s defense adapts to his absence.

On the offensive end, Mbah a Moute has filled the “3-and-D” role nicely, hitting 37.3 percent of his 3-pointers this season, on a career-high 2.8 attempts per game. Additionally, the 31-year-old forward has shown the capability to drive to the rim aggressively, often times finishing with crafty layups or strong dunks:

While Mbah a Moute’s loss isn’t the worst injury to happen to Houston this season, he is an extremely valuable (and underrated) component of their top-five defense this season.

Hopefully Mike D’Antoni doesn’t play his key rotational players too much over the next couple of weeks and Houston can maintain its elite play on both ends in Mbah a Moute’s absence.