The Houston Rockets are 3-0 and sit first in the West after a third straight win on October 24. The streak started October 21 with a 128-110 win over the Mavericks at home. Two road wins followed. On October 23, Houston won 114-110 at San Antonio, with Alperen Sengun scoring 29 and Amen Thompson adding 20 points and 10 rebounds. On October 24, the Rockets won 121-114 at Atlanta, with Kevin Durant scoring 22 and Tari Eason 19.
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The injury list is the main story now, and it got longer on the last night. Before the Hawks game, Steven Adams was listed day-to-day for rest. He then went to out with a left ankle injury. That came one day after he cleared a right calf problem that had kept him out on October 21. Fred VanVleet went from day-to-day for rest to out with a right knee injury the same day. Marcus Smart was listed with a left forearm injury and moved to out within the day.
Reed Sheppard's left knee has been up and down. He was listed day-to-day on October 22 and out on October 23. He went back to day-to-day on October 24, then was cleared. Julian Phillips had a short illness. He was listed day-to-day on October 20 and cleared the next day.
The roster was reshuffled after the last story. Cameron Matthews, Caleb McConnell and Bryce Harris, who joined October 15-16, all left on October 18. No reason was given. On October 19, the Rockets waived Sean Pedulla and converted Oscar Tshiebwe and Julian Phillips to two-way deals. That also closes the question of the three unnamed camp cuts reported October 17. The cuts are no longer a loose end, but the three players were never named.
Eason's undisclosed day-to-day listing from October 15 has had no update. He played and scored 19 in Atlanta. The Rockets still have not said what that listing was. Nothing new has surfaced on Jeff Green and Aaron Holiday, who left September 21. No reason or replacement has been reported.
The power rankings do not match the record. They moved Houston from 6th to 9th in a week. The standings put the Rockets 3rd in the West on October 24 and 1st after the Atlanta win. Two of the three wins came by four points or fewer in the road games. The next test is whether a depleted rotation, with Adams, VanVleet and Smart all out, can keep that streak going.
Open storylines
as of Sun, Oct 25Three rotation players were listed out on October 24, with a left ankle, right knee and left forearm injury, and no return dates are known.
Sheppard went from day-to-day to out to cleared in three days with a left knee issue, so his health is not settled.
He was listed day-to-day with an undisclosed cause on October 15, and nothing has been said since, though he scored 19 on October 24.
The power rankings fell from 6th to 9th while the Rockets went 3-0 and moved to first in the West.
Their September 21 departures still have no stated reason and no reported replacement.
The projection
all 30 teams →The season depends most on Marcus Smart (10.3 wins without him), Amen Thompson (8.7 wins without him), Steven Adams (3.3 wins without him), Clint Capela (1.8 wins without him) and Kevin Durant (1.7 wins without him): on/off from 2026-27, details under Injuries. Computed Sun, Oct 25; the method is on the methods page.
The race
Western Conference · 79 games leftNext 5: vs Hawks67%at Bucks0%at Mavericks33%vs Thunder100%vs Celtics50%opponents win 50% of their games on average
Standings and games back are from the official table; the pace is the current record carried over 82 games, nothing more.
Day by day
27 days on the recordEarlier on the record23 more days · back to Fri, Sep 11
The franchise
Every season since the start →Public record →Nowupdated 2026-10-19
Ime Udoka enters his fourth season as head coach of a team built around last summer's trade for Kevin Durant, who arrived from Phoenix on July 6, 2025, with Jalen Green and Dillon Brooks going the other way in a seven-team deal. The rest of the core is homegrown: Alperen Şengün, Amen Thompson, Jabari Smith Jr., Tari Eason and Reed Sheppard were all Rockets draft picks, with Marcus Smart and Steven Adams as the veteran hands. Last season the group went 52-30, with a net rating of 5.4 that ranked sixth in the league, an offense that ranked eighth and a defense that ranked fifth. The playoffs ended the way too many recent ones have: eliminated by the Lakers in the first round, though not without a fight, as Houston forced a game 6 after trailing 3-0, with both of the comeback wins coming without Durant on the floor. On March 21, 2026, Durant passed into fifth on the NBA's all-time scoring list in front of the home crowd. Entering 2026-27, the payroll sits at $205.5 million across 16 contracts, above the $200.4 million luxury tax line, with Durant ($43.9M), Şengün ($35.6M), Fred VanVleet ($25.0M player option) and Smith ($23.6M) as the biggest numbers. Houston holds its own first-round picks in 2028 and 2030, with other first- and second-rounders tied up in swaps or owed to Charlotte and Memphis. Camp brought churn, too: Cameron Matthews, Caleb McConnell and Bryce Harris all joined in mid-October, and a report the same week said the Rockets cut three camp invitees.
Identity and rivalries123 words
Houston's identity is still shaped by the analytics-driven, shot-heavy basketball Daryl Morey built around pace and space during the Harden years, and it lives on now with Udoka running things through Şengün's playmaking and Durant's scoring. The Rockets measure every era against the two championship banners from 1994 and 1995, a standard nothing since has matched. The Lakers rivalry carries the most sting lately: Los Angeles ended Houston's season in the bubble in 2020 and again this past spring. Golden State is the older grudge, having eliminated Houston from the playoffs four separate times between 2015 and 2019 during the Harden-D'Antoni era. Each matchup now raises the same question for fans: can this roster finally get past the second week of the playoffs.
Home, owners and numbers97 words
Toyota Center has been the Rockets' home since the 2003-04 season, an 18,500-seat arena in Houston. Tilman Fertitta, a Houston restaurant billionaire, bought the team in 2017 for $2.2 billion, a record price for an American pro sports team at the time. The building has filled up plenty in the franchise's biggest years; the 2014-15 season alone averaged 18,230 fans a night across 40 sellouts. That history traces back to the Rockets' first permanent home in the city, Hofheinz Pavilion, and to The Summit, the 16,611-seat arena where Houston played for 28 years before Toyota Center opened.
What they are chasing110 words
Houston is chasing its third championship banner, and more immediately, a trip past the first round of the playoffs. Getting back under the luxury tax does not look close with this roster's money committed the way it is for the next several years. The open argument among fans: is a roster built around a 38-year-old Durant and a Şengün still in his prime good enough to finally win a playoff series, or is ownership paying tax money for another early exit. That gap — a star in his late thirties and a center who may still be years from his own peak — is the argument Rockets fans keep having.
The long view454 words
The Houston Rockets have won two NBA championships and four Western Conference titles. The franchise began in 1967 as the San Diego Rockets, an expansion team founded by Robert Breitbard for a $1.75 million entry fee. Elvin Hayes, the first overall pick in the 1968 NBA draft, led the team to its first playoff appearance as a rookie. Financial trouble tied to the San Diego Sports Arena forced Breitbard to sell in 1971 to a Houston-based investment group, Texas Sports Investments, which paid $5.6 million and moved the team, making it the first NBA franchise in Texas.
In Houston, Moses Malone, acquired from the ABA, led the Rockets to the Eastern Conference finals in 1976-77 and to their first NBA Finals in 1981, where they lost to the Boston Celtics in six games. The 1984 draft brought Hakeem Olajuwon with the first overall pick; paired with 7-foot-4 Ralph Sampson, the "Twin Towers" reached the 1986 Finals, again losing to Boston. Ownership changed hands as George Maloof bought the team for $9 million in 1979, and Charlie Thomas and Sidney Shlenker purchased it for $11 million in 1982.
The franchise's peak came under coach Rudy Tomjanovich. In 1993-94, Olajuwon led Houston to a then-record 58 wins and the franchise's first championship, beating the New York Knicks in the Finals. With Clyde Drexler added, the Rockets repeated as champions in 1994-95, sweeping the Orlando Magic in four games. Charles Barkley joined in 1996 but the team could not get past the Western Conference finals, and Olajuwon, Drexler, and Barkley were all gone by 2001. Moses Malone, Olajuwon, and later James Harden combined for four MVP awards with the Rockets.
The early 2000s brought Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming, both hampered by injuries, and years of regular-season success without playoff breakthroughs. After Yao's retirement in 2011, the Rockets rebuilt around James Harden, acquired in 2012, who played nine seasons without a losing record and led two trips to the Western Conference finals, both losses to the Golden State Warriors. Under general manager Daryl Morey, the team became known for advanced statistical analytics in team-building and style of play. When coach Mike D'Antoni and Morey left before the 2020-21 season, Harden requested a trade to the Brooklyn Nets, starting a new rebuild.
The Rockets play home games at Toyota Center in Downtown Houston, having previously spent 29 seasons at The Summit starting in 1975-76. The team's identity carries the "Rockets" name from San Diego's "city in motion" theme and General Dynamics' Atlas missile and booster rocket work, and the classic yellow-and-red logo introduced in the early 1970s ran through the 1994-95 season. A longtime in-state rivalry with the San Antonio Spurs dates back to the 1981 playoff run.