The Houston Rockets have a lot to be thankful for from a scheduling perspective heading into Thanksgiving. Their opponent on Wednesday night, the Golden State Warriors, do not.
The Warriors have already played five sets of back-to-back games this season, the most of any team in the league. The Rockets, on the other hand, are the only team that has had at least one rest day before every game.
The number of back-to-backs, however, only scratches the surface of the Warriors’ brutal slate. They started the season with 18 games in 32 nights. Twelve of those were away games, tied for the most of any team. And getting to all those road games required 13,341 miles of travel, per Positive Residual, while the median NBA team traveled less than 8,000 miles during that span.
Rest and travel play a factor in determining the outcomes of games. In the 2024-25 NBA season, teams won just 44.7% of games with zero rest days, versus 51.2% with at least one day off. Road teams prevailed only 45.6% of the time, with home teams winning 54.4%.
Golden State has the NBA’s third-oldest roster, weighted by minutes played, with Curry, Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green all over 35 years old. This season, the Warriors are 4-8 on the road and 2-3 on the second night of back-to-backs.
“It’s been the toughest early schedule I’ve ever been a part of in my entire NBA life,” Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said on the Willard & Dibs radio show.
The Warriors also aren’t just any team. They’re the NBA’s most valuable franchise, worth $11.33 billion, and the most-followed on social media. They have the second most-popular player on the planet in Stephen Curry.
Things do get better from here for the 10-9 Warriors, who rank eighth in the Western Conference. From here on out, the Golden State will play the most home games, of course, because all teams play 41 home games each regular season. Their 33,228 miles of remaining travel rank in the middle of the pack.
NBA schedules, however, don’t always end up equally favorable for all teams by the end of the season. For instance, the Warriors will play a total of 14 “rest disadvantage” games this season (i.e. when their opponents have a rest day but they don’t). No other team will play more than 12.
Although these inequities do exist, the NBA made a strong push during the mid-2010s to reduce them. Back in 2012-13, the Orlando Magic played just 13 back-to-backs while the Brooklyn Nets played a whopping 23. This season, every team plays between 13 and 16 games with no rest. Instances of rest disadvantage are also down to 10.1 per team this season from 12.8 a decade ago.