This is as I had expected. We'll be better this year, but the reason we tied for the league lead in national television appearances last season was due to the novelty act of McGrady and Yao. Once the national media realized that they weren't exactly the next Shaq and Kobe (due to Yao's shortcomings), the excitement has worn off. Now we have the same number of games as the other pretty good teams in the league but are no longer considered marquee or glamorous. We should be back at the tops in '06 with a strong showing this year.
Maybe Stern figured since we are hosting the All Star game, 24 games plus that would be too much exposure...
Yea, but it was something of novelty. It was Van Gundy's first year back, and he was considered a big time coach. Everyone was also expecting Yao to blow up and dominate. Look, unless your one of the premiere teams in the league, which we are not yet, or are considered glamorous (Phil's return, Kobe etc.), you're just not going to get 24 appearances. We will be amongst the best teams in the league this year, but we still are not yet. 19 games is fair for the 5th seed of last year.
It is already up at rockets.com. Go to the schedule and there is a link to download the schedule to Outlook. If you are lazy, send me an email through the board and I will forward my copy.
why do they put the Rockets v. Spurs at the end of the season... most likely this will be a meanless game -
Excellent point, that's definitely a strong possibility. On the flip-side, there's the slight chance that the division could come down to that game. Boy would that be exciting.
I hadn't even checked it. Yes, the one they have up is 04-05, but they will have one in .csv format soon.
i havent seen more than a three game home stand, but a 6 game road trip? a 5? i think nov will be a good first month,we wont start of slow like last yr
I have created my yearly Rockets calendar. Here is the link, please re-upload once you have received it. http://s25.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=0EBLKVL28OZJ608IXGGX3QVJ1E BTW, if anyone finds any needed corrections, please let me know either in this thread or via email through the board.
The 3rd and 4th week of Nov is brutal!!! The strech stars on Sun @Bos. With one day rest, we travel onTue @Min. And back to back on Thu @SAS and Fri home vs Det. The week caps off by Sun day 20th @Ind. Not much break after that, just one day rest, back to back again, play @DAL and home vs Pho. Another sets of back to back at the week end with only 2days rest @Mem and home vs Chi. 9 games in 14days, 3 sets of back to backs. All tough games.
wow, the 5 games in 7 days stretch from Nov 17th to Nov 23rd is disgusting. both finalists (SA and Det), a conference finalist (pho), and 2 2nd round teams (Dal and Ind) and indy is gonna be strong if healthy this year. plus we somehow get a 6 game road trip in december and april and still have room for a 5 game road trip in november. are we sure they gave us 41 home and 41 road games. also a little disappointing to drop from the top of the national tv standings. i guess the lakers get only 2 road games in april b/c last year they had all their home games early in the season.
I hope the last game is meaningless for a lot of reasons. I'm trying to not get to worked up about this schedule. Our second-half schedule didn't look nearly as brutal until Denver, Phoenix and Seattle became a lot stronger than I thought they'd be. This November stretch is brutal: Thu 10 @ Miami 8:00pm -- TNT Sat 12 @ New Jersey 8:00pm -- -- Sun 13 @ Boston 6:00pm -- NBATV Tue 15 @ Minnesota 7:00pm -- -- Thu 17 @ San Antonio 8:30pm -- TNT Fri 18 Detroit 8:30pm -- ESPN Sun 20 @ Indiana 6:00pm -- -- Tue 22 @ Dallas 7:30pm -- NBATV Wed 23 Phoenix 6:30pm -- ESPN We'd better come out of the gate fast or we'll probably be 4 or 5 games out of first by the time November ends. Three home games in April is just sick.
