Rockets' Dorian Finney-Smith: Cleared for team debut

Finney-Smith (ankle) is available for Thursday's game against the Lakers, Shams Charania of ESPN reports.

Finney-Smith joined the Rockets on a four-year deal this offseason but hadn't been available for the first 27 games of the season after he underwent surgery in June to address a left ankle injury. The Rockets had been mum on providing updates on his status throughout the season, but Finney-Smith was apparently able to do enough ramp-up work behind the scenes over the past few weeks for the team to sign off on him making his team debut. As Charania notes, Finney-Smith will be operating with a strict minutes limit Thursday, though once he gets fully ramped up, the 32-year-old could end up eating into the playing time of supporting players such as Tari Eason, Clint Capela, Steven Adams, Reed Sheppard and Josh Okogie.