The Houston Rockets didn’t know until very late at night on Tuesday, December 3 that they would be playing a home game in the quarterfinal knockout round of the 2024 Emirates NBA Cup. They only found out the day and time in the early hours of Wednesday, December 4th.

But with little more than a week to sell tickets for a game that wasn’t originally on Toyota Center’s 2024-25 season, the Rockets drew a sellout crowd of 18,055 fans for Wednesday’s game celebrate an exciting home win over the Golden State Warriors. Even a late tip-off at 8:53 a.m. local time (due to TNT’s national television coverage) didn’t deter fans on a weekday, and almost everyone stayed until a thrilling conclusion.