A grueling trek to China offers Houston a unique bonding opportunity. Discover how long flights and international excursions could forge the chemistry needed for a fast start.
As the NBA offseason is finally coming to an end, we’re slowly creeping towards the full 82-game schedule. A handful of teams have already started their preseason, with three separate games taking place this weekend, and the remaining teams scheduled throughout this upcoming week.
Unfortunately, fans of the Houston Rockets will have to wait a little bit longer to see their team touch the court. They’ll be meeting the Dallas Mavericks in Macao, China for two preseason outings on Friday and Sunday. With the time difference, those are 7 a.m. and 5 a.m. CT, so set your alarms.
Due to the travel, both organizations held earlier training camps than other teams around the league. They’ll also have at least one less game than every other team, but two or three less in most cases. While that could certainly seem like a disadvantage when it comes to building team chemistry, there’s reason to believe the opposite could be true.
Even though they’re scheduled to play less games, it wouldn’t surprise me if they end up spending more time together than other teams will. That's almost a given with the 13-15 hour flight from LA to Macao. With the flight back, that’s more than a full day together, just on a plane.
Not to mention the fact that they’ll be in unfamiliar territory. I’m sure guys want to go out and see what the city has to offer, but I can’t imagine many players going out by themselves. I expect a lot of fun to be had on these full-team excursions. More than you could expect from teams back in the states.
Other guys can just go back to their own home after finishing a game. Or at the very least, they’re more comfortable in the U.S. and don’t necessarily need to travel as a team. For example, teams like the Clippers and Warriors play in Hawaii. You could easily see guys going their separate ways and enjoying a mini vacation. That seems less likely to happen in China.
With the games next Friday and Sunday (October 9th and 11th), the Rockets also have NBA Fan Day in between on Saturday. It’ll be a very eventful weekend, and will hopefully help build some chemistry that can translate to their play on the court.
We might get to see just that, as the team will be returning to Houston to play the OKC Thunder on October 15th. That’ll be their final preseason game, so I’m curious to see how they’re meshing by then, and if the starters will continue to play significant minutes.
Due to the limited number of preseason matchups, I wouldn’t be surprised if Ime Udoka treats these like regular season games. They can get an advantage in the early season by coming out with better chemistry and more connectivity than other teams around the league. Stay tuned to see how they play their cards.
Recent Articles:
