Houston Rockets head coach Ime Udoka indicated that Tari Eason is close to being cleared for full, unrestricted minutes as he continues his recovery from the right ankle sprain he sustained in early January, according to Varun Shankar of the Houston Chronicle.
Eason logged 28 minutes in Thursday’s overtime defeat to Philadelphia, finishing with 13 points, nine rebounds, and four steals.
That marked the eighth occasion this season in which he reached at least 28 minutes, though he sat out the following night’s game against Detroit on Friday as part of right ankle management.
In that same update, Shankar added that Udoka believes Dorian Finney-Smith will need a longer ramp-up period before returning to a complete workload, as he works to find his rhythm after undergoing ankle surgery in the offseason.
Udoka compared the approach to how the team eased Steven Adams back last year, limiting him to under 15 minutes per game until March, when his playing time began to increase.
Finney-Smith is currently averaging a career-low 15.5 minutes across the 13 games he has appeared in this season and has had difficulty from beyond the arc, converting only 28.6% of his three-point attempts, with 35 of his 44 total shots coming from three-point range.
Both teams benefitted from last summer's Kevin Durant trade, plus more on the Rockets. https://t.co/Ow0oFnFW9H
— Hoops Rumors (@HoopsRumors) January 26, 2026
