RealGM

Rockets guard Tracy McGrady returned to the court on Monday after missing Saturday’s game, but said that he and the team have agreed that he will not play both games when the Rockets play two games in as many nights. After struggling in New Orleans on Friday, McGrady sat out Saturday’s game against the Utah Jazz.

"Me and coach talked about it and I think when we do have back-to-backs, we’ll really have communication to decide which game I should play and which game I should sit out. Moving forward, I won’t be playing on back-to-backs and that will be the plan from this point on.

"I can’t hurt it, but you go hard one night, the next night, it doesn’t have that same feeling. It’s really painful, weak. That’s why we decided not to play on back-to-backs."

McGrady said he has not felt "my normal self" since the last game of the playoffs when he played after an anti-inflammatory injection.

"I can’t explode the way I want to," McGrady said. "It’s hard to do certain things normally I’m capable of doing. I’m kind of limited in some ways to playing my normal way. That’s why I have to make some adjustments. It works some nights; some nights it doesn’t."

McGrady, however, said he expected that he will fully recover and be able to play back-to-backs again this season.