The Houston Rockets are on the sofa for Christmas Day this 12 months, however that wasn’t the case within the franchise’s first 12 months of existence in 1967.
Again once they had been stationed in San Diego, the Rockets hosted rivals the Los Angeles Lakers in Southern California for the first-ever nationally televised recreation on Christmas Day.
The sport was broadcast coast-to-coast on ABC, one in every of 5 basketball video games on December 25, and the Rockets took a 104-101 victory over the eventual Western Convention champion, the Lakers.
Elgin Baylor led all scorers with 21 factors whereas Gail Goodrich had 19 and Jerry West had 13 for the Lakers.
The Rockets had been led in scoring by John Block, who had 20. He was one in every of six Rockets in double figures for the sport. Pat Riley, who would turn into the pinnacle coach of the Lakers within the Nineteen Eighties, was a rookie that 12 months. He scored six factors for the Rockets in the course of the recreation.
Since then, the Rockets have performed 11 extra occasions on Christmas Day, with their final look coming in 2019 in a loss to the Golden State Warriors in one other version of the rivalry between the 2 groups lately.
Possibly the Rockets may have an opportunity to finish their drought on Christmas Day subsequent 12 months when the schedule is launched.
Would you want to affix the dialogue? As Rockets on SI Fb and comply with us on Twitter to remain updated with all the most recent Rockets information. You may as well meet the group behind the quilt.
