Rockets welcome Kings after splitting first back-to-back

Nearly six weeks elapsed during the 2025-26 season before the Houston Rockets had to play their first back-to-back contests, a scheduling quirk that was objectively favorable.

When the Rockets finally were tasked with playing on consecutive nights, the results were curious.

After throttling Utah on Sunday, Houston played uphill throughout Monday's rematch with the Jazz and fell 133-125. The Rockets led by as many as 37 points en route to a 28-point victory in the first meeting, but they failed to muster the requisite energy to topple the Jazz again.

They return home Wednesday to face the Sacramento Kings on the heels of their second loss in the last 10 games.

"It's the first back-to-back of the year, and you can't make an excuse for that," said Rockets coach Ime Udoka. "It looked like it for some guys, and we didn't have the same juice."

Kevin Durant, the oldest player in the Rockets' rotation, wasn't the issue. He piled up a team-high 32 points in a team-high 40 minutes to go with nine rebounds and five assists. Alperen Sengun and Amen Thompson, two of the youngest guys in the rotation, weren't the issue either as Sengun delivered 31 points, 14 assists, eight rebounds and five blocks while Thompson chipped in 23 points and eight rebounds.

But the Rockets trailed by 21 points before their bench bailed them out, producing a rally that made it a one-possession game in the final minute.

While the Rockets have thrived courtesy of their starting unit, they've been bolstered by a collection of reserves that haven't logged consistent minutes -- yet have produced consistent effort. The Rockets will need more of the same from their bench later this month, with back-to-back games scheduled for Friday and Saturday and again Dec. 20-21.

"Grateful for the guys at the end of the bench whose numbers get called randomly and they come out there and produce," Durant said. "It's been like that for us all season."

The Kings, hamstrung by the absences of veterans Domantas Sabonis (knee) and Dennis Schroder (hip), dropped their third consecutive game on Sunday, falling 115-107 to the Memphis Grizzlies.

While Sabonis could be sidelined for an additional two weeks with a partially torn meniscus that has sidelined him since Nov. 16, Schroder missed his third consecutive game on Sunday.

Sacramento had been seeking lineup cohesion before Sabonis and Schroder departed, and finding a winning combination has been an elusive endeavor. The Kings discovered a bit of success against the Grizzlies by having veteran DeMar DeRozan play with the second unit -- a group that features rookies Nique Clifford and Maxime Raynaud -- but the results have been inconsistent.

"DeMar and the second unit is fantastic because a lot of those younger guys, they can depend on him," said Kings coach Doug Christie. "You can play through him on the offensive end of the floor. And then defensively, they're young, and they are flying around, grabbing rebounds, tipping the ball. Their pickup points were nice and high.

"So it's a blessing to have him when he's able to play in that unit, but sub patterns and different things are going to be up and down based upon what we're trying to find, trying to find a unit that played well."

--Field Level Media