HOUSTON – The Houston Rockets today announced their schedule for the first half of the 2020-21 NBA season. The Rockets have the second-best winning percentage (.682) of any team since the start of 2016-17 and are the only team to have made the playoffs in each of the past eight seasons.
The first half of the Rockets schedule is comprised of 37 games with 18 at Toyota Center and 19 on the road. The second part of the schedule will be released towards the latter portion of the first half. The entire schedule will consist of 72 games.
AT&T SportsNet will broadcast 33 of the 37 first half games as well as three preseason games. The Rockets have a total of 14 nationally televised games in the first half (TNT: 3, ESPN: 4, NBA TV: 7). All games will be available on the radio broadcast home of the Houston Rockets, SportsTalk 790 KBME and NewsRadio 740 KTRH.
Seven of the Rockets first 10 games will be at Toyota Center, including the season opener vs. Oklahoma City on Wednesday, Dec. 23. That stretch concludes with consecutive home games against the defending NBA champion L.A. Lakers on Jan. 10 and Jan. 12.
From Jan. 14 through Feb. 17, Houston will play 14 of 19 games on the road, including a first-half high four straight from Jan. 30 through Feb. 4. The Rockets will finish their first half schedule by playing six of eight at home, with the last scheduled game vs. Brooklyn on March 3. While there will not be an All-Star Game this season, there will be a break in games across the league from March 5-10 before the second part of the schedule begins.
This season, Houston will play each Western Conference opponent three times and each Eastern Conference team the normal two times. The Rockets will host Southwest division rivals Dallas and Memphis twice while facing New Orleans and San Antonio twice on the road. Southwest Division teams will play Pacific Division teams twice at home and will travel to Northwest Division teams twice.
The Rockets have five sets of back-to-back games during the first half of the schedule. Three of those sets are both road games with the remaining two sets consisting of consecutive home games.
Houston’s first half schedule consists of eight games on Monday (3 home), three on Tuesday (2 home), seven games on Wednesday (3 home), five on Thursday (3 home), four on Friday (2 home), eight on Saturday (3 home), and two Sunday home games.