The Houston Rockets Will Not Be Playing on Christmas Day

The schedule for the 2026-2027 full regular season will be officially released on August 13. However, some of the key dates and events have already been released via the league’s marquee game announcement.

This includes the matchups taking place on Christmas Day and, surprisingly, the Houston Rockets will not be a part of them.

The selection of games on Christmas Day is valuable because the NBA manually selects the teams that will play on the holiday. The selections are made with the intent to maximize profit for both the television networks and the NBA.

Because of this, the NBA selects the highest-profile games. In doing so, the highest-ranked teams in the NBA and the biggest superstars of the NBA are selected.

Although the Rockets are one of the best teams in the Western Conference and have one of the biggest superstars in the NBA, Kevin Durant, the NBA has made the decision to leave Houston out of the schedule.

The Christmas schedule is: the San Antonio Spurs against the New York Knicks in an NBA Finals rematch; the Miami Heat against the Boston Celtics; the Oklahoma City Thunder against the Minnesota Timberwolves; the Philadelphia 76ers against the Los Angeles Lakers; and the Denver Nuggets against the Golden State Warriors.

With the tight selection complete, do the Rockets deserve to have been a part of it?