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Space City Home Network to offer local playoff broadcasts for Rockets-Warriors series
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- Space City Home Network to offer local playoff broadcasts for Rockets-Warriors series
In the 2025 NBA playoffs, every game will be broadcast to a nationwide audience by one of the league's national television partners.
But for first-round series, with the lone exception of ABC exclusives, games can also be broadcast by each team's regional sports network (RSN).
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For the Rockets, that's Space City Home Network (SCHN), which the organization jointly runs with Major League Baseball's Houston Astros . SCHN is available on distribution platforms including DirecTV, Xfinity, AT&T U-verse, and fuboTV ( free trial ).
So, in the case of Sunday night's Game 1 between the Rockets and Golden State Warriors , fans have the option of watching either the national feed on TNT or the local feed on SCHN. The SCHN broadcast will have the team's usual announcers during the regular season — Craig Ackerman as play-by-play, Ryan Hollins as analyst, and Vanessa Richardson as sideline reporter — on the call.
For Hollins and Richardson, who joined the Rockets' broadcast team in late 2021 and 2022, respectively, it will be their first time calling live playoff action.
"Craig, Ryan, and I couldn't be more thrilled to be broadcasting playoff games," Richardson told Rockets Wire. "I have so much respect for national media, but I think Houston sports fans will enjoy the option of watching the first-round games with their local broadcasters."
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Of the first four games of the best-of-seven series, only Game 3 is an ABC exclusive. That means SCHN will carry Game 1, Game 2, and Game 4. The broadcast networks and tipoff times for Game 5 and beyond ( schedule ) have yet to be determined, since those games are not yet necessary.
As part of its coverage, SCHN will also have its usual pregame and postgame shows featuring former Rockets as analysts — most notably, Hall of Famer Calvin Murphy and native Houstonian Gerald Green.
These pregame and postgame shows can run immediately before and after every game, including ABC exclusives. For example, even though SCHN can't broadcast Saturday's Game 3, the network does have a live postgame show scheduled for that night. Those shows will include live reaction, analysis, and interviews with players and coaches from the Rockets.
"I'm passionate about sharing the incredible things this franchise is doing, as someone who is fortunate to be around this team daily," said Richardson, who also attends every practice and shootaround while collecting exclusive content and one-on-one interviews for use on future broadcasts and social media .
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All NBA playoff games in the second round and beyond are national TV exclusives, though SCHN —should the Rockets advance — would still have the right to air pregame and/or postgame content. In that round, the winner of the Western Conference series between the No. 2 Rockets (52-30) and No. 7 Warriors (48-34) will face the winner of the series featuring the No. 3 Los Angeles Lakers and No. 6 Minnesota Timberwolves.
In 2026 and beyond, under the NBA's new agreement with its national TV partners, every playoff game — first round included — will be a national exclusive. Thus, the 2025 playoff run is the last under the current structure. But for fans of the Rockets, it does provide a few more opportunities to see and hear the familiar voices of their own broadcast crew during a memorable 2024-25 season.
Tipoff of Game 1 and Game 2 is at 8:30 p.m. Central on Sunday and Wednesday nights, respectively, with both games available to watch on SCHN. Since Houston had the superior regular-season record and holds home-court advantage in the series, both will be played inside the team's home arena of Toyota Center.
SCHN's most recent playoff broadcast was Game 7 of Houston's 2020 first-round series versus the Oklahoma City Thunder , which the Rockets won to advance to the second round. Prior to 2025, that was the last year the Rockets qualified for the NBA playoffs.
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This article originally appeared on Rockets Wire: Rockets' Space City Home Network offers local playoff broadcasts
