Rick Adelman was critical of the NBA for setting up an "utterly ridiculous" schedule for his team that includes four back-to-back games over the next two weeks.

The Rockets face Detroit at home on Tuesday, then must fly to Denver to play the first-place Nuggets on Wednesday. They visit Dallas on Friday and return home to face Oklahoma City on Saturday; then have to play two games on consecutive nights twice more during Christmas week.

"We have a horrendous stretch here," Adelman said. "I don't know if the league really understands that they gave us four straight back-to-backs. It's awful.

"It's utterly ridiculous," Adelman said. "But that's the schedule we have, it's just the way it is and we're just going to have to respond to it."