Copyright The New York Times
OKLAHOMA CITY – The Thunder planned Tuesday’s pregame festivities for months, down to a nice touch of the reigning NBA champions posing in front of their banner, which was suspended in mid air before rising to its final resting place in the rafters. But it’s what happened after all the hoopla that served as a reminder of how the Thunder earned the right to party in the first place. Fighting back from 12 points down in the second half, and then surviving what should have been a Chris Webber-like moment for one of Oklahoma City’s former favorite sons, the Thunder hung on for a 125-124 win over the Houston Rockets to kick off season No. 80 of NBA basketball in much the same fashion it ended season 79. The Thunder’s pregame party was the result of outlasting the Indiana Pacers in seven thrilling, competitive finals games. The stakes on Tuesday were obviously much lower, but you couldn’t tell that to anyone on the court in the closing seconds of regulation or either overtime. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s MVP reign, like his team’s title defense, is off to a very good start. Only the third player in NBA history to be MVP, Finals MVP, and scoring champ in the same season, Gilgeous-Alexander sank two free throws with 2.3 seconds left in double overtime to put his team ahead for good. He scored 35 points – 24 coming in the fourth quarter and two overtimes. Chet Holmgren added 28 points and Ajay Mitchell scored 16 off the bench for the defending champs. They were missing third-team All-NBA performer Jalen Williams, who is still recovering from offseason wrist surgery. Alperen Şengün led the Rockets with 39 points and 11 rebounds, while Kevin Durant, making his Rockets debut, added 23 points and nine rebounds. Gilgeous-Alexander drew a foul on Durant, who was playing tight defense, on the Thunder’s final possession. Houston’s last shot, taken by Jabari Smith Jr., was a 20-footer in the corner that had no chance. Had Houston won, the NBA world would have been in an uproar over a missed call on Durant at the end of the first overtime. Durant, the former Thunder star, rebounded Gilgeous-Alexander’s missed shot and tried to call a timeout. Lucky for him the officials didn’t see it, as Houston was out of timeouts and the Thunder would have had another chance to win it via a technical foul shot. This marks just the sixth time in NBA history that a game on NBA opening night has gone into double overtime. Şengün, whose five 3s were a career high, put the Rockets ahead, 102-101, with 38 seconds left in regulation on a short turnaround jumper. Durant was fouled with 9.5 seconds left in regulation and a chance to put the game away, but he missed the first foul shot. Gilgeous-Alexander, who scored 12 in the fourth quarter, capitalized by converting a 16-footer with 2.6 seconds to go, and Şengün’s 13-footer with a hand in his face missed – sending the game into the first of two extra sessions. “A lot of good learning in the game,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said afterwards. “It wasn’t an easy night.” The requisite “MVP” chants for Gilgeous-Alexander, “looooooos” for fan favorite Luguentz Dort, and a few boos for NBA commissioner Adam Silver (what did he ever do to you, Oklahoma City-ites?) kicked off the Thunder’s pregame celebration. Sam Presti may be the most popular executive in all of pro sports, or at least it sounded like it Tuesday inside Paycom Center, when his name was announced. One by one, the now defending champs received their bro hug from Silver and their diamond-crusted rings at center court, the finale of a months’ long celebration after the Thunder’s Game 7 triumph over the Indiana Pacers last June. Gilgeous-Alexander briefly addressed the raucous crowd, offering thanks for the community’s unwavering support. The familiar “OKC, OKC” chorus rang down from the rafters as the most prized textile in all of Oklahoma was raised out of its long, black box. “Oklahoma City Thunder, 2024-25 NBA champions,” the banner says, immortalizing the franchise’s second championship overall, but first since the team moved from Seattle in 2008. “Feels like last season just ended a week ago, but you know, that’s just how things go,” said Holmgren, who scored 13 in the first quarter. “Time flies.” The game marked the NBA’s formal return to NBC, ending a hiatus of 8,532 days since the last time an American pro basketball game that counts was broadcast on the network. Last year’s iteration of the Thunder became the second-youngest team to win a finals (Portland, 1976-77), with an average age per player of 25.56. They won 68 regular-season games (tied for the fifth-most in NBA history), set a league record for average margin of victory (12.9 points per game), another league record for wins by double digits (54) and featured the league’s top defense in the regular and postseasons. And the whole team is “back,” although there was a key piece missing Tuesday. Williams, a third-team All-NBA and second-team All-Defensive selection last season, tore the scapholunate ligament in his wrist on April 9 but put off surgery until after the Thunder’s historic run. “He’s progressing,” Daigneault said. “He’s doing a good job. We’re always going to be conservative with every situation, especially at this time of the year. He’s coming along, he’s right where he should be.” Durant, 37, a 15-time All-Star, began his career with the Thunder franchise as a rookie in Seattle. He played in Oklahoma City until he joined Golden State in 2016, and is on his fourth team since. He signed a two-year, $90 million contract extension with the Rockets earlier this week. They acquired him as part of the largest trade in NBA history, a seven-team deal that fortified Houston in most pundits’ minds as a legitimate threat to a budding Thunder dynasty. The Rockets, who surprisingly finished second in the West behind Oklahoma City last season, were dealt a tough blow over the summer, though, when point guard Fred VanVleet was lost for the season to a torn ACL suffered during a voluntary workout. Without VanVleet, the Rockets started one of the tallest lineups in NBA history, a combined total of 413 inches for the five starters. Second-year rising star Amen Thompson, who is 6-7, is the de facto point guard. He was out for much of the overtime periods with an apparent leg cramp, and finished with 18 points and five assists in 39 minutes. Last season, Durant became just the eighth player in NBA history to join the 30,000-point club, and, barring injury, could pass Wilt Chamberlain, Dirk Nowitzki, and Michael Jordan on the all-time scoring list this season. “The fit has been easy from day one,” Houston coach Ime Udoka said of Durant. “That’s just who he is and his skill set, and he can pretty much play with anybody, anywhere. And so he’s done that. More so than that, I think it’s taking guys under his wing from day one, and taking guys who looked up to him, and kind of showing them the ropes of what he’s done to become who he is and where he’s at now. And everybody’s kind of followed suit as far as that.” This story will be updated.
