Houston's two championships and two Finals losses to Boston set a bar the Harden-Morey era reached toward but never cleared. Udoka's fourth season, built through the draft and reinforced by Durant, picks up that same chase with a roster that just saw the Lakers end its season in the first round.
1973-74 season
On October 12, 1973, the Rockets beat Cleveland 106-99, an expansion-era result four years before Moses Malone pushed Houston to the 1976-77 Eastern Conference finals and then the 1981 NBA Finals, a six-game loss to Boston. The pattern was already forming: Houston could win games before it could win a series.
1986 Finals
The 1984 draft paired Hakeem Olajuwon with 7-foot-4 Ralph Sampson, the Twin Towers who reached the 1986 Finals and lost again to Boston. Two Finals trips, two losses to the same franchise, set the bar Houston would not clear until Olajuwon had Clyde Drexler beside him instead of Sampson.
1994-95
Under Rudy Tomjanovich, Olajuwon led a then-record 58 wins in 1993-94 and a championship over New York. With Drexler added, Houston repeated in 1994-95, sweeping Orlando. Two titles stand as the franchise ceiling three decades later, the standard every Houston core since has been measured against and missed.
2012-2020
James Harden arrived in 2012 and played nine seasons without a losing record, reaching two Western Conference finals under general manager Daryl Morey's analytics-built rosters — both ended by Golden State. Harden left for Brooklyn before 2020-21, and the rebuild that followed drafted Sengun, Thompson, Smith Jr., Eason and Sheppard.
Now
Ime Udoka opens his fourth season with that draft core plus Durant, acquired July 6, 2025, in a seven-team trade for Jalen Green and Dillon Brooks. The Lakers eliminated Houston in the first round last spring after the Rockets forced a Game 6 from down 3-0 — a round Harden's teams routinely got past on the way to two conference finals that still fell short of a title.
How many championships have the Rockets won?
Two, in 1994 and 1995, both under coach Rudy Tomjanovich with Hakeem Olajuwon at center.
Did the Lakers eliminate the Rockets in the 2026 playoffs?
Yes. The Lakers beat Houston in the first round after the Rockets forced a Game 6 from down 3-0.
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