4 days ago
Key takeaways as Rockets learn complete 2025-26 season schedule
For Houston, 17 of its first 26 games are on the road. Meanwhile, 14 of the final 22 will come inside the friendly home confines of Toyota Center.
The NBA's complete 2025-26 season schedule has arrived!
For Houston, it starts with a four-game preseason slate in early October before the 82-game grind begins on Tuesday, Oct. 21. In a matchup of the top-two teams from last season's Western Conference standings, that regular-season opener at Oklahoma City takes place on 2024-25 championship ring night for the Thunder.
For newly acquired Rockets star Kevin Durant, it will be a reunion night with the franchise where he played eight elite seasons earlier in his Hall of Fame career.
From a broadcast perspective, that Rockets-Thunder clash marks the return of the NBA on NBC for the first time since June 2002. Houston is clearly viewed as a top-tier team for both basketball and business purposes, and the lucrative television slots reflect that.
Looking at the numbers, here are a few other pertinent takeaways from Houston's 2025-26 schedule release.
Road Ready
Seventeen of Houston's first 26 regular-season games are away from home. Between Nov. 22 and Dec. 26 — roughly the holiday season window between Thanksgiving and Christmas — the Rockets currently have only two home games scheduled. However, a third could be added pending Emirates NBA Cup 2025 results.
The Rockets will play two of their first three games at home, with the Toyota Center opener coming Friday, Oct. 24, against Detroit. Another game will follow on Monday, Oct. 27, versus Brooklyn.
Reunion, Revenge Games
One of those early road games is at Phoenix on Nov. 24, which will be the first time for the Durant-led Rockets to face his former squad. The Suns will pay a return visit to Houston on Dec. 5, and that will be the first time for Jalen Green and Dillon Brooks to play in Houston since being traded from the Rockets.
After losing to Golden State in the 2025 playoffs, the first Rockets-Warriors matchup of 2025-26 will be an ESPN exclusive on Nov. 26, the Wednesday prior to Thanksgiving. That will be the finale of group-stage play in the Emirates NBA Cup 2025, so there could be additional stakes.
TV Darlings
Excluding NBA TV, the Rockets will be shown 28 times on national broadcast networks. This time a year ago, Houston had three such slots.
More national games could be added in December, should Houston advance to the knockout stages of NBA Cup play.
Only the Thunder, Lakers, Warriors, and New York Knicks (34 each) are scheduled for more national TV games than Houston.
Legacy Draw
Of those 28 nationally televised games, 11 will be aired via the NBA's over-the-air partners, NBC or ABC. At this time last year, the Rockets had zero over-the-air games.
Back-to-Backs
The Rockets have 14 sets of back-to-backs this season, but none until Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 (both in Utah).
Interestingly enough, eight of these sets are in the same city, which eliminates travel in-between games. A home example is a back-to-back versus the Clippers on Feb. 10 and Feb. 11, and that set will lead into February's All-Star break.
The NBA average is 14.4 back-to-backs per team, with 4.9 of those featuring no in-between travel. Houston is better than the average in both categories.
However, one challenge could be the cumulative nature of those back-to-backs in a short time frame. Of that 14 total, 11 will come in the season's final three months (January 15 to April 12).
Rare Air
Houston's Dec. 25 road matchup at the Los Angeles Lakers is the first Christmas Day game for the Rockets since 2019. That Oct. 21 showdown at Oklahoma City is Houston's first appearance on the NBA's opening night since 2017.
Just prior to Christmas is another matchup in Los Angeles against the Clippers. In an NBC telecast, that Dec. 23 game is scheduled to tip at 10:00 p.m. Central, which would be the latest start in franchise history.
Fall Fridays
Early in the season, Friday will be a busy night.
The home opener is Friday, Oct. 24, versus the Pistons. That game will be Durant's first regular-season game at Toyota Center as a member of the Rockets, and it will also feature a matchup of the Thompson twins — Houston's Amen and Detroit's Ausar.
A few weeks later, on consecutive Fridays in November, the Rockets host Portland (Nov. 14) and Denver (Nov. 21) in NBA Cup games. Tickets for those games are available to purchase now.
Sandwiched in between those three Friday home games is the NBA Cup opener at nearby San Antonio on Friday, Nov. 7.
World Series Overlap
If you believe the Astros can make a championship run in Major League Baseball (MLB), the Rockets' Oct. 24 home opener will come at the same time as Game 1 of MLB's World Series.
No Extended Homestands or Road Trips
Houston has no homestands or road trips longer than five games in length. Last season, the Rockets had multiple homestands and road trips of six or more games.
New Year's Travel
Over the last decade or so, the Rockets have usually hosted at least one game — and sometimes two, as a back-to-back — during the New Year's Eye and New Year's Day window. That won't be the case this season, with the Rockets off on New Year's Eve and playing a road game in Brooklyn on New Year's Day.
Home for 2026
As the calendar turns to 2026, all the road games to start the season will be offset by a wave of home games. That will especially be evident late in the season, when 14 of Houston's final 22 will be played at Toyota Center — including six of the final eight.
Varied Start Times
Because of the national TV exposure, Houston's home tipoff times are much more varied than the usual 7:00 p.m. Central. Depending on whether the Rockets are on the front or back end of a broadcast doubleheader, some home starts will be as early as 6:30 p.m., while others are as late as 8:30 p.m.
For games that aren't national broadcasts, 7:00 p.m. remains the usual home start time, with a few 6:00 p.m. exceptions on Sundays.
Road Matinees
The Rockets will play four daytime games on the road, including two aired on national television. There are no home matinees, with 6:00 p.m. the earliest scheduled start time for a game at Toyota Center.
Space City Spaced Out
Many of those national broadcasts are national exclusives, meaning there won't be a local option via Space City Home Network (SCHN) and its three-person announcing team of Craig Ackerman, Ryan Hollins, and Vanessa Richardson.
Houston's national exclusives have been extremely minimal in recent years, but that figure is at 17 this season. SCHN will have 69 game broadcasts — all four preseason games and 65 in the regular season.
Postseason TV Changes
If the Rockets return to the playoffs for a second straight season, SCHN won't have any broadcasts there. Under the NBA's new TV deals, which start this season, all playoff games are national exclusives.
Last season, SCHN had broadcasts for six of Houston's seven first-round games against the Golden State Warriors (the lone exception was Game 3, an ABC exclusive).
West Opponents Scheduled Only Three Times
Each season, NBA teams play most teams from their same conference four times (two home, two road) and teams from the other conference twice (one home, one road). However, that math would lead to an 86-game schedule.
So, to keep it to 82, there are four same-conference opponents that teams play only three times, with the group of four rotating each year. For the Rockets, one of those teams this season is the Thunder, who they are scheduled to play only once (Jan. 15) in Houston. The Rockets will play in Oklahoma City twice (Oct. 21 and Feb. 7).
Other West opponents that Houston is scheduled to play three times are Golden State, Denver, Minnesota, and both Los Angeles teams. Among that group, the Warriors and Nuggets are slated to visit Houston only once.
Changes from NBA Cup
On paper, only playing three games versus strong teams such as the Thunder, Warriors, Nuggets, Timberwolves, Lakers, and Clippers would seem to be a scheduling advantage. However, it's worth noting that the schedule will slightly change based on NBA Cup results.
Should the Rockets not advance, two standard regular-season games will be added to the schedule in the second week of December, with each team's potential additions coming from that group of same-conference opponents that are currently scheduled only three times.
So, for example, a second Rockets-Thunder game in Houston could be added to the schedule — should both teams not advance.
Five-Game Season Series?
On the other hand, should the Rockets advance in the NBA Cup, they could play as many as five regular-season games versus the same opponent(s). Because the Cup follows a tournament format, matchups are set independent of any scheduling matrix.
In 2024-25, Houston's knockout-round games came against the Warriors and Thunder, leading to five games versus both opponents for the season.
Uniforms and Court Details
The Rockets will mostly wear the same uniforms this year, though they are returning to the 2023-24 'dunkstronaut' concept for City Edition games. That set pays homage to the city's basketball history.
Those City Edition jersey nights, which include a matching custom court design, will begin in November.
The Rockets will have a separate custom court for NBA Cup home games on Nov. 14 versus the Trail Blazers and Nov. 21 versus the Nuggets.
Game-by-game schedules for uniforms and courts will be made available by NBA LockerVision at a later date.
More: Rockets at Thunder: In national spotlight, can Houston finally end its opening night skid?
