The NBA restart schedule for the Rockets will be as difficult as it has been long-awaited. Well, almost.
There is no doubt, however, that when the resumption of the NBA season begins, the Rockets will need to be ready if they are to move up — or avoid sliding down — for the start of the irregular season schedule announced on Friday.
They will also be in the spotlight with six of the eight “seeding games” they will play at the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex to be on national television and the final game against the 76ers to be determined.
The Rockets, who are already assured a place in the postseason, will face five opponents that have already clinched their playoff spots with one of the games against a team fighting to get in coming early in the schedule, before teams trying to advance potentially could be eliminated.
The most significant aspect of the schedule will be how it starts, opening July 31 against the Dallas Mavericks who are just 1½ games behind the fifth-place Thunder and Rockets.
The Rockets will face the Eastern Conference leading Bucks on Aug. 2 before facing the Trail Blazers, a team in the race to earn a playoff spot, on Aug. 4. The first half of their grueling stretch to open their Florida schedule will conclude against the Lakers on Aug. 6.
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ROCKETS SCHEDULE
The Rockets (40-24) will have eight games in Orlando to try to move up from sixth in the playoff seeding. How it breaks down for the Rockets:
Dallas
July 31
8 p.m., ESPN
Mavericks record: 40-27
Season series: 1-1
Milwaukee
Aug. 2
7:30 p.m., ABC
Bucks record: 53-12
Season series: 0-1
Portland
Aug. 4
8 p.m., TNT
Trail Blazers record: 29-37
Season series: 1-2
LA Lakers
Aug. 6
8 p.m., TNT
Lakers record: 49-14
Season series: 1-1
Sacramento
Aug. 9
7 p.m., ATT-SW
Kings record: 28-36
Season series: 1-1
San Antonio
Aug. 11
1 p.m., NBA-TV
Spurs record: 27-36
Season series: 1-1
Indiana
Aug. 12
3 p.m., NBA-TV
Pacers record: 39-26
Season series: 1-0
Philadelphia
Aug. 14
TBA
76ers record: 39-26
Season series: 1-0
In some ways, the Rockets schedule is more manageable than what they had faced when the season was suddenly stopped on March 11. The opponents’ records are better than what was left on their regular-season schedule, but that is true for every team still playing because of the exclusion of the bottom eight teams no longer on schedules.
The Rockets, however, were to play the Lakers, Bucks, Blazers, Pacers and Sixers on the road, as opposed to the neutral site of the restart. They had home and road games left with the Mavericks and Spurs. Had the NBA used the next eight games on the original Rockets’ schedule, excluding teams no longer playing, the Rockets would have faced the reigning champion Raptors.
The strength of the remainder of the Rockets’ “seeding games” schedules could be determined by what is at stake with their next two opponents, the Kings and Spurs, long shots to reach the playoffs.
The potential use of play-in games — in which the ninth-place teams in each conference could still get a chance to win their way into the post-season ifthey are within four games of the eight-place team — could keep teams alive in the playoff chase longer. But it will be difficult for the Kings and Spurs, 3½ and four games behind the eighth-place Grizzlies to remain in the chase deep into the restart schedule because they play each other in their first games in Florida.
The Rockets wrap up their summer sprint to the postseason against the Pacers and 76ers. The game against the Pacers on Aug. 12 will be the second half of their lone back-to-back of their Disney schedule.
The Rockets went 7-7 against the teams they will face in Florida, taking at least one win against each remaining opponent other than the Bucks, who topped the Rockets in Toyota Center in the season-opener.
All eight of the Rockets’ “seeding games” will be broadcast locally on AT&T SportsNet with ESPN broadcasting the game against the Mavericks, ABC picking up the game against the Bucks, TNT showing games against the Lakers and Blazers, and NBA-TV getting the games against the Spurs and Pacers.
The NBA will reopen its season with the Jazz facing the Pelicans before the Lakers play the Clippers in a July 30 double-header on TNT. Of the 88 “seeding games” 52 are on national television with six or seven games played on three courts each day.
jonathan.feigen@chron.com
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Rockets' schedule: First four will be key for seeding - Houston Chronicle
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