The Houston Rockets will play on Christmas Day, the NBA’s biggest regular-season stage, for the first time since 2019. It’s the kind of opportunity the Rockets envisioned when making the offseason trade for Kevin Durant.
But as their holiday matchup with LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers looms, the Rockets may be regretting that wish for the spotlight. Houston, hoping to be taken seriously as a championship contender this year, has not looked like a team ready for primetime.
Instead of surging into Christmas, the Rockets are limping there, having lost five of their last seven games.
The old cliché is that the NBA season doesn’t truly begin until Christmas — which is bad timing for the Rockets, who have looked completely unprepared for the moment.
This month alone, Houston has lost to each of the bottom five teams in the Western Conference. Most recently, they were embarrassed Tuesday night in a 20-point loss to the 8-21 Los Angeles Clippers.
Head coach Ime Udoka called out his team’s effort after the game.
“I felt like tonight, I wouldn’t say the Clippers are a team that play extremely hard, and they outplayed us. With just effort alone,” Udoka said after the loss.
The biggest issue has been the step back in Houston’s defense, which led them a year ago.
“In the past, we could rely on defense,” Udoka said. “Tonight it was just non-existent.”
That defense surrendered 128 points to the Clippers, while allowing them to shoot 55% from the floor and 20-for-37 from beyond the arc. That came just days after blowing second-half leads of 14 and 20 points against other bottom-tier teams.
What was once Houston’s greatest strength has now quietly become a weakness.
Meanwhile, despite adding Durant this offseason, Houston is still struggling to close out games. They’re 1-4 in overtime and just 6-8 in ‘clutch’ games. Championship teams close out tight games. Houston hasn’t.
The Rockets also haven’t handled adversity like a championship team would. Houston has lost the second half of all three back-to-backs they’ve played this season and are just 9-8 on the road, while currently slogging through an extended road trip.
The addition of Durant was supposed to elevate the Rockets into the NBA’s true championship contender class. Instead, Houston is just 1-5 against teams that have better records than them.
Through 27 games, they actually have a worse record with Durant (17-10) than they did at the same point last season without him (18-9). Right now, Houston is just one win ahead of the seven seed.
And now comes Christmas night in Los Angeles against LeBron and Luka Doncic, with most of the basketball world watching. If Houston wants to be taken seriously as a true contender, these are the moments that demand a good showing.
Everyone asks for something this time of year. But Rockets fans might be regretting their wish for the spotlight this Christmas, as their team doesn’t appear truly ready for it.