James Harden Set For Two Return Dates Against Houston Rockets in 2024-25

The NBA schedule release on Thursday created a number of storylines for the Rockets, including bringing James Harden back to Houston for a pair of matchups.

Mar 6, 2024; Houston, Texas, USA; Los Angeles Clippers guard James Harden (1) / Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

On Thursday, the NBA announced its schedule for the 2024-25 regular season.

While the year won't start for over a month, the Houston Rockets were able to learn a few things about their upcoming campaign with Thursday's schedule release.

In addition to playing a league-high 16 back-to-back games and playing just three contests on major television networks, the schedule also revealed that former Rockets superstar James Harden will return to Houston for two games, early in the season, when the Clippers take on the Rockets.

On Wednesday, Nov. 13 and Friday Nov. 15, less than a month into the 2024-25 season, Harden and the Clippers will take on the Rockets in a baseball-style series in Houston.

Harden will likely receive a warm welcome from Rockets' fans after playing the majority of his career in Houston. The future Hall of Fame guard reached his highest level of success while playing for the Rockets, making Harden's return even more anticipated.

In nine seasons as a Rocket, Harden averaged 29.6 points, 7.7 assists, six rebounds and 1.8 steals per game in addition to being an All-Star every year, winning the MVP in 2018 and leading Houston to the Western Conference Finals.

Harden originally came to the Rockets in October of 2012 as the centerpiece of a trade with Oklahoma City that sent Kevin Martin, Jeremy Lamb and multiple draft picks to the Thunder in return for Harden, Cole Aldrich, Daequan Cook and Lazar Hayward.

While the Clippers record will certainly take a hit this season after losing Paul George over the offseason, Los Angeles should still be a competitive team in the Western Conference led by Harden, Kawhi Leonard and a cast of solid role players.

If the Clippers are still healthy early in the season, however, their two matchups in Houston should be entertaining contests that could end up having implications on playoff seeding in the West.

---

Want to join the discussion? Like Rockets on SI Facebook and follow us on Twitter to stay up to date on all the latest Rockets news. You can also meet the team behind the coverage.