{"id":875247,"date":"2026-10-08T15:04:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T15:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/875247\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T15:04:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T15:04:11","slug":"rockets-mavs-take-china-highlights-top-scenes-from-off-the-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/875247\/","title":{"rendered":"Rockets, Mavs take China: Highlights, top scenes from off the court"},"content":{"rendered":"


The NBA preseason slate sends the Dallas Mavericks<\/a> and Houston Rockets<\/a> across the world for a doubleheader inMacao, China, on Oct. 9 and 11.<\/p>\n

Houston and Dallas are the second set of teams to play in Macao. The Phoenix Suns<\/a> and Brooklyn Nets<\/a> competed in the gambling hub last season, marking the return of the NBA to China after a yearslong hiatus. Similar to last year, the Rockets and Mavericks will be playing atMacao’s Venetian Arena.<\/p>\n

A trip overseas tends to bring a team closer together ahead of the long grind of the regular season. While the preseason action might not indicate how a team performs when the games begin to count, it’s the off-court activities that can make an impact in the end.<\/p>\n

Here’s a look at the top sights and sounds from the Rockets-Mavericks trip in Macao.<\/p>\n

\"\"A hometown welcome<\/p>\n

With a flight time that can reach or exceed 20 hours, finally touching ground can be a relief. When each respective team arrived at their hotels, fans made sure to show the players love.<\/p>\n

Room tour from an unlikely source<\/p>\n

Rockets’ fans got an inside look at the rooms for each player courtesy of big man Steven Adams<\/a>. The 6-foot-11 center shared a video of his setup, which included a bowl of fruit, Rockets-themed pillow and Egyptian cotton.<\/p>\n

Picture-perfect setting and love for Kyrie and Durant<\/p>\n

It’s not a trip to a new location without a memorable group photo. The Mavericks and Rockets separately posed near a body of water with the Venetian Macao set in the background.<\/p>\n

As Dallas snapped its picture, fans flocked to greet the team — specifically, star guard Kyrie Irving<\/a>. The same occurred for Houston starKevin Durant<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mavs making presence felt<\/p>\n

After the first practice in Macao for the Mavericks, the team already needed to find replacements for two items: a chair and a rim. Forward Naji Marshall<\/a> broke a rim, explaining “I’m too strong and I’ve got too much power,” before he signed it and the team collected it. Marshall then broke a chair while sitting down.<\/p>\n

Adams andBogdanovi take in Macao<\/p>\n

The Rockets center and his teammate Bogdan Bogdanovi made sure to look around Macao to get a feel for the city. They went to the ruins of Saint Paul’s, which is the facade of what was originally the church of Mater Dei<\/a> built between 1602 to 1640. The duo then had some street food, all while a huge crowd followed along.<\/p>\n

Views from Hong Kong<\/p>\n

It takes 55 minutes to an hour to travel from Macao to Hong Kong via a ferry. A Dallas quartet of Daniel Gafford<\/a>, Caleb Martin<\/a>, Dwight Powell<\/a> and Sergio de Larrea<\/a> took advantage of the distance. The group traveled to Victoria Peak in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n

Yao Ming … is still growing?<\/p>\n

The Rockets legend visited the NBA Macao house with fellow Rockets great Cuttino Mobley. While at the venue, Mobley found a cardboard cutout of the 7-foot-6 center. Remarkably, when Yao approached it, it seemed like he had grown. He joked: “I have something in my shoes.”<\/p>\n

KD, Kyrie hang out<\/p>\n

The two future Hall of Famers shared a moment together on the court in Macao, chatting it up and laughing.<\/p>\n

For the kids<\/p>\n

Young fans were more than thrilled to meet their heroes in Macao, and both Durant and Flagg were happy to oblige.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 ESPN Internet Ventures. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NBA preseason slate sends the Dallas Mavericks and Houston Rockets across the world for a doubleheader inMacao,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":875248,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[368374,760,352,5050,355,99],"class_list":["post-875247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-368374","tag-dallas-mavericks","tag-espn","tag-houston-rockets","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=875247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/875248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=875247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=875247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=875247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}