When the Rockets lost at Dallas on Tuesday night, it eliminated Houston from the NBA’s inaugural in-season tournament. Only eight of the 30 teams advanced to the quarterfinals.
Because in-season tournament matchups (with the exception of the championship) count toward the 82-game regular season, those teams who did not advance are having games added to their schedules to ensure all teams play the same number of games.
Each team’s schedule additions were selected from a pool of teams meeting two criteria:
- Did not advance to the in-season tournament quarterfinals;
- Same-conference teams that were not already scheduled for four regular-season meetings, i.e. the usual limit.
Teams from different conferences (Eastern and Western) were already scheduled for the NBA’s out-of-conference maximum of two regular-season matchups versus each potential opponent. Thus, all of the new matchups are between teams from the same conference. Teams face intraconference opponents either three or four times per season.
Unfortunately for the Rockets (8-7), that formula led to a challenging draw of a home matchup versus Oklahoma City (11-6) on Wednesday, Dec. 6 and a road game at Denver (12-6) on Friday, Dec. 8.
The tip for the Rockets-Thunder at Toyota Center is at 7 p.m. Central, while Rockets-Nuggets tip at 8 p.m. Central from Denver.
Rockets get schedule additions that might be tougher than if they advanced in the in-season tournament. They will play the Thunder next Wednesday in Toyota Center. They then go back to Denver, where they play tomorrow, Dec. 8. Denver, 8-0 at home, is 2nd, OKC 3rd in the West.
— Jonathan Feigen (@Jonathan_Feigen) November 29, 2023
