Breathing room turns scarce
Jam-packed second-half schedule features 10 sets of back-to-back games
Needing to make up ground in the remainder of the season, the Rockets learned on Wednesday how difficult that will be.
The second half of the season’s schedule, crowded with three rescheduled games, will include 10 backto-backs, with several particularly difficult travel challenges waiting.
The sets of games on consecutive nights could be especially daunting for the Rockets, who have held out guards Victor Oladipo and John Wall for one game in each back-to-back this season, potentially adding to the challenge of making a second-half move.
“It’s something we’ll definitely have to look at over the break and study and figure out if these guys are going to be able to play some back-to-backs or not, and if so, what that kind of looks like,” Rockets coach Stephen Silas said. “By that time, the G League bubble will have been completed. Kevin Porter Jr. will come back, so that will be another guy that we’ll have to kind of fill-in as that occurs.
“Yeah, to see all those back-to-backs and the fact we only have two times we have two days between games in the whole second half of the season is rough.”
They Rockets will likely need to make progress quickly. After opening the second-half schedule with road games against the Kings and Jazz on consecutive nights, the Rockets will have a seven-game homestand, their longest of the season before a back-toback against the Timberwolves in Minneapolis.
That stretch will not be easy, however. The start of the second half crams 17 games into 11 days, with four sets of back-to-backs.
“I had a feeling it was going to be more condensed for sure just based on the cancellations and trying to get it all in in a timely manner,” Silas said. “Every team is going to have to go through it. Hopefully, we’ll be healthy at that point. Hopefully, Christian (Wood) will be back and we’ll be whole and we’ll really get a chance to see how good we are.”
The Rockets also have a five-game homestand to complete April and start May. But after that, the schedule could hardly be tougher.
They go on a four-game road trip against the Bucks, Jazz, Trail Blazers and Lakers, with the first two games coming on consecutive nights in Milwaukee and Salt Lake City, an unusually long flight for a back-to-back.
After returning from that road trip, the Rockets fly back from Los Angeles to play the Clippers in Toyota Center the next night before finishing the regular season in Atlanta.
After completing their first-half schedule at home against James Harden and the Nets, they get their second game against their former star in Brooklyn March 31.
Their eight-game losing streak, along with needing to make up ground to move back into playoff contention, dropped the Rockets from the national television spotlight. They have just one nationally televised game in the second half of the season, May 1 against the Warriors on ESPN.
They will have plenty of other concerns before worrying about national television appearances. There is also at least one reason for hope after the break.
“With the second half of the season as daunting as it is,” Silas said, “at least we’ll have a better shot because we’ll have our guys back, hopefully.”