The Houston Rockets will finally begin their first back-to-back of the 2025-26 NBA season on Sunday afternoon. It’s not the only quirk of Houston’s schedule so far, either. Every other team in the league has played at least 18 games. More than half are already at 20. Houston has played only 16. So is Houston’s 12-4 record some kind of illusion?
Is The Houston Rockets’ Bizarre 2025-26 Schedule A Trap?
The Rockets’ first back-to-back of the season will be a pair of away games against the Utah Jazz. Up until now, they’ve had at least one day off between every single game. Back-to-backs are known to be a grueling experience for teams, and some would say the Rockets have had things easy avoiding them so far. Indeed, it’s hard to evaluate just how difficult Houston’s schedule has been so far. ESPN ranks Houston’s strength of schedule so far as the third-highest in the league. In theory, that means that the Rockets have had to play against particularly fierce opposition in order to achieve their 12-4 record. In practice, they only have two wins over current top-six seeds: the Toronto Raptors and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The Rockets have done an excellent job of closing out middle-of-the-pack opponents. Admittedly, the luxury of a slightly more relaxed schedule may have helped with that. But realistically, there’s very little relaxing about any NBA schedule in 2025. Back-to-back games and anomalies like four games in five nights are down across the league. But in basketball, to take something away, you have to give something up. That applies to scheduling as well. Despite their marginally lighter load, like most teams, the Rockets have been playing basically every other night. That means more off days are dedicated to rest and fewer to practices.
Will Rockets Go Back-to-Back with Bizarre Back-to-Back Records?
Of course, no back-to-backs so far might be a more significant advantage for Houston than it would be for the average team. Last season, Houston’s record in back-to-back games contrasted starkly between the first and the second. The Rockets were just 6-10 in the second night of back-to-back games in 2024-25. In the opening games, they were 13-3. One factor in that might have been the availability of key personnel such as Steven Adams and Tari Eason. Those two players were generally held out of the second night of back-to-backs.
Houston’s approach to back-to-back games this season has been much speculated on as well. For one thing, Houston picked up a third center in Clint Capela, seemingly for the precise reason of covering Adams’ availability issues. More notably, though, they also picked up Kevin Durant. The 37-year-old Durant, in his 19th NBA season, has certainly earned the right to sit out of schedule-stuffers. Not that Durant would view it as a privilege. The man loves basketball. He would probably even love basketball in Salt Lake City on the second night of a back-to-back.
But the team may opt to exclude Durant anyway. After all, Houston showed in their last two games that they can manage without him from time to time. The Rockets defeated two of Durant’s former teams (the Warriors and the Phoenix Suns) while their unstoppable scorer was absent, attending to a personal matter. The games were invaluable opportunities for other players to step up. Against the Warriors, Reed Sheppard stepped all the way up to yet another career high, this time 31 points. As the Rockets slowly march their way through the schedule and into more back-to-back games, Sheppard and others will get further opportunities to shine.
The Last Word
If the Rockets’ schedule is a trap, then it’s probably designed to trick us into thinking they aren’t as good as they look. Their strength of schedule will obviously take a hit playing against the auction house Jazz. It’s also true that they’ve already beaten up on an awful lot of middle-of-the-pack teams. But the Rockets also hung in with the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder for a one point loss on opening night. When Houston’s bizarre schedule finally evens out, will they skid in the standings, or will it just be business as usual?
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