SACRAMENTO — The Houston Rockets played a road game Sunday night at the Sacramento Kings, but that contest was the end point of a long travel odyssey.

Unavailable to book the preferred hotel in Sacramento because two other teams had taken all the rooms, the Rockets stayed in San Francisco and then bused 85 miles to Golden 1 Center Sunday afternoon.

Also, whereas most teams based in the Central Time Zone stay overnight after a night game before flying home from California trips, the Rockets flew home directly after the game that tipped at 6 p.m. local time.

I received a lot of questions from Bluesky users when I posted about this before the game, so I thought I’d tackle some of them here. First, some background: I was heavily involved in the travel arrangements when I worked for the Memphis Grizzlies, so I have some experience in this realm.

One note here from Sac: Rockets have had an *interesting* travel day. Hotels were all booked (Lakers and Knicks also staying in town tonight) so they drove up from SF and are flying home right after game. At end of long trip and after tonight will have played 23 of 36 on road, sooooo …. we’ll see.

— John Hollinger (@johnhollinger.bsky.social) January 11, 2026 at 8:01 PM

How exactly did this happen to the Rockets? Basically, it required a perfect storm of scheduling events. The Kings had a four-day stretch with three home games; it so happened that all three opponents — the Rockets, the Los Angeles Lakers and the New York Knicks — wanted the same hotel Sunday night. (Basically, every NBA team stays in the Sawyer Hotel in Sacramento, which is connected to the arena underground and, as far as I know, is the only place on the circuit where this is true.)

Houston had a game on Sunday, the Lakers on Monday and the Knicks on Wednesday. Also, a scheduling quirk gave the Knicks two off days after a day game in Portland on Sunday, and New York decided to peel out of the rainy Northwest for sunnier skies as quickly as possible.

The Rockets couldn’t just stay someplace else? Maybe in theory, but not in practice. You can’t really stay at the La Quinta Inn with an NBA team. In most of the league’s mid-size-to-small markets, only one or two hotels are plausible options for an NBA team’s traveling party. Among the factors to consider: lots of suites; extra long beds; conference rooms and other facilities for team meetings and meals; having enough rooms for an entire party (often 50 or more people with players, coaches, staff, announcers and execs); and the ability to do “team travel” contracts with provisions like 5:30 p.m. PT checkout times (normally when the last bus leaves the hotel for a 7 p.m. game).

In this case, there is one other option in Sacramento where we stayed once with the Grizzlies, but it’s … not great. I can see how a team might actually prefer San Francisco.

Logistics-wise, Houston had come from Portland on Friday and needed to stay at least two nights in northern California. While it’s not clear to me what shut them out over the weekend since the Lakers and Knicks didn’t arrive until Sunday, I’ll note one other thing: The Rockets likely stayed in the hotel of choice for NBA teams in San Francisco, the St. Regis, and that place is niiiiiice. Teams also typically get in a practice at a health club two blocks away when they stay in San Francisco.

Houston likely made this decision several months ago. Teams typically book all their rooms for the season as soon as the schedule comes out; they also sign contracts with all their preferred hotels in their own conference that guarantee playoff availability and, thus, avoid mad, chaotic scrambles in April and May.

Unfortunately, with three teams eyeing one date at one hotel, it was inevitable that the game of musical chairs would end with one of them not having a seat.

The timing couldn’t have been worse for the Rockets. The road-weary squad has played 23 of its first 36 games on the road, tying an NBA record — including 11 road contests since Dec. 15, which perhaps explained that dead-legged effort in a lethargic loss to the lowly Kings.

The good news? Houston’s next five games are at home, and it has 12 home and five road games between now and the All-Star break. Houston won’t cross the Rockies again until the last week of the season, when it can once again stay in San Francisco … but this time for a game against the Golden State Warriors on April 5.