{"id":323206,"date":"2025-10-22T07:06:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T07:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/323206\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T07:06:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T07:06:10","slug":"shai-gilgeous-alexander-leads-thunder-past-rockets-in-double-overtime-thriller-on-ring-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/323206\/","title":{"rendered":"Shai Gilgeous-Alexander leads Thunder past Rockets in double-overtime thriller on ring night"},"content":{"rendered":"

OKLAHOMA CITY \u2013 The Thunder planned Tuesday\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s what happened after all the hoopla that served as a reminder of how the Thunder earned the right to party in the first place.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

The Thunder\u2019s 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\u2019t tell that to anyone on the court in the closing seconds of regulation or either overtime.<\/p>\n

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander\u2019s MVP reign, like his team\u2019s 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 made two free throws with 2.3 seconds left in double overtime to put his team ahead for good. He scored 35 points \u2013 24 coming in the fourth quarter and two overtimes.<\/p>\n

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First game of the season and reigning MVP, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander already in midseason form dropping 35 points against the Rockets\ud83d\udd25!#NBAAfrica<\/a> #NBA<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/Lgp87ZLRSb<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 NBA Africa (@NBA_Africa) October 22, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cWe did enough to win,\u201d Gilgeous-Alexander said of a night he called \u201csurreal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know how to describe it besides that,\u201d he continued. \u201cIt was super fun though. Seeing the banner raised was cool too. Knowing that it\u2019ll be up there forever. And we are the first group to bring the city a championship is a pretty special feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chet Holmgren added 28 points and Ajay Mitchell scored 16 off the bench for the defending champs. The Thunder were down 10 on the last possession of the first half but Mitchell, a second-year player, converted a four-point play on a 3-pointer and free throw. Oklahoma City was missing third-team All-NBA performer Jalen Williams, who is still recovering from offseason wrist surgery.<\/p>\n

Alperen \u015eeng\u00fcn 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\u2019s final possession. Houston\u2019s last shot, taken by Jabari Smith Jr., was a 20-footer in the corner that was way off the mark.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s missed shot and tried to call a timeout. Lucky for him the officials didn\u2019t see it, as Houston was out of timeouts and the Thunder would have had another chance to win it via a technical foul shot.<\/p>\n

\u201cKevin definitely called timeout about three times, verbally and physically with his hands,\u201d Gilgeous-Alexander said. \u201cI think the refs just missed it. But that\u2019s life. You make mistakes in life and you move on. Yeah. Nothing too crazy. I turned the ball over a bunch tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

This marks just the sixth time in NBA history that a game on NBA opening night has gone into double overtime.<\/p>\n

\u015eeng\u00fcn, 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 had a chance to put the game away, but he missed the first foul shot.<\/p>\n

Gilgeous-Alexander, who scored 12 in the fourth quarter, capitalized by converting a 16 footer with 2.6 seconds to go, and \u015eeng\u00fcn\u2019s 13 footer with a hand in his face missed \u2013 sending the game into the first of two extra sessions.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of good learning in the game,\u201d Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said afterwards. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t an easy night.\u201d<\/p>\n

The requisite \u201cMVP\u201d chants for Gilgeous-Alexander, \u201clooooooos\u201d 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019 long celebration after the Thunder\u2019s Game 7 triumph over the Indiana Pacers last June.<\/p>\n

Gilgeous-Alexander briefly addressed the raucous crowd, offering thanks for the community\u2019s unwavering support. The familiar \u201cOKC, OKC\u201d chorus rang down from the rafters as the most prized textile in all of Oklahoma was raised out of its long, black box.<\/p>\n

\u201cOklahoma City Thunder, 2024-25 NBA champions,\u201d the banner says, immortalizing the franchise\u2019s second championship overall, but first since the team moved from Seattle in 2008.<\/p>\n

\u201cFeels like last season just ended a week ago, but you know, that\u2019s just how things go,\u201d said Holmgren, who scored 13 in the first quarter. \u201cTime flies.\u201d<\/p>\n

The game marked the NBA\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s 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\u2019s top defense in the regular and postseasons. And the whole team is \u201cback,\u201d although there was a key piece missing Tuesday.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s historic run.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s progressing,\u201d Daigneault said. \u201cHe\u2019s doing a good job. We\u2019re always going to be conservative with every situation, especially at this time of the year. He\u2019s coming along, he\u2019s right where he should be.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019 minds as a legitimate threat to a budding Thunder dynasty.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fit has been easy from day one,\u201d Houston coach Ime Udoka said of Durant. \u201cThat\u2019s just who he is and his skill set, and he can pretty much play with anybody, anywhere. And so he\u2019s done that. More so than that, I think it\u2019s 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\u2019s done to become who he is and where he\u2019s at now. And everybody\u2019s kind of followed suit as far as that.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the Thunder survived near misses from Durant and \u015eeng\u00fcn, and some controversy. Last spring, it looked like the Pacers might be 60 minutes away from their first NBA championship when they had a 10-point lead late in the third quarter of Game 4, getting close to building a 3-1 series lead \u2013 which only one team in finals history had ever overcome. But Gilgeous-Alexander scored 15 points over the final 4:38 to lead Oklahoma City to a comeback that altered the series.<\/p>\n

Indiana nearly pulled off another rally in Game 5, cutting an 18-point deficit down to two in the fourth quarter, before four consecutive steals by the Thunder, coupled with Williams\u2019 40 points, swayed that game in their favor. The Pacers reciprocated in Game 6, blowing out Oklahoma City to force a Game 7. They led by 30 points after three quarters. And Indiana was ahead in Game 7 when Tyrese Haliburton blew out his Achilles toward the end of the first quarter.<\/p>\n

The Denver Nuggets took the Thunder to seven games in the Western semifinals, and though Oklahoma City beat Minnesota in five games in the conference finals, the Timberwolves smashed the Thunder by a whopping 42 points in Game 3 of that series.<\/p>\n

Was opening night, ring night, in Oklahoma City a microcosm of all the Thunder endured last year to earn what they were celebrating? Or foreshadowing a repeat, in the truest sense of the word?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to be humble enough to realize we need to get better,\u201d Gilgeous-Alexander said. \u201cIt was an amazing moment. I\u2019ll remember it for the rest of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n