On Tuesday, the Houston Rockets tipped off the 2025\u201326 NBA regular season with a road visit against the reigning NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder.<\/p>\n
The Thunder held a ring ceremony to celebrate their victory in the 2025 NBA Finals before the opening tip, but the Rockets hoped to break up the jubilee and play spoiler. In a gritty, dramatic, and controversial double-overtime game, Houston came up just short, falling to OKC, 125\u2013124.<\/p>\n
Both teams appeared to be dealing with some offseason rust, evidenced by errant passes, sloppy dribbling, and poor shooting throughout the contest. The Rockets shot just 28.2% from long range, with the Thunder faring even worse at 25%.<\/p>\n
Nineteenth-year veteran Kevin Durant led Houston in scoring at halftime, tallying 14 points in his first half as a Rocket. Despite KD\u2019s hot start, Alperen \u015eeng\u00fcn led the way out of the locker room, finishing with 29 points in the second half and overtime and 39 points in total.<\/p>\n
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander struggled in the first two quarters, scoring just five total points. However, the reigning NBA MVP found his footing late, hitting multiple clutch shots to keep the Thunder alive down the stretch. He finished with a team-high 35 points.<\/p>\n
Recapping the Drama Down the Stretch<\/p>\n
The Rockets led by as many as 12 points in regulation, but they clung to much slimmer single-digit leads for the majority of the contest. The Thunder didn\u2019t hold a lead in the second half until there was just 1:34 remaining in regulation, when a midrange jumper by Gilgeous-Alexander gave them a 102\u2013101 advantage.<\/p>\n
\u015eeng\u00fcn gave the Rockets the lead back shortly thereafter, and a free throw from KD eventually made it a 104\u2013102 ballgame.<\/p>\n
With the game on the line, Gilgeous-Alexander buried a midrange jumper to tie it up with two seconds remaining. \u015eeng\u00fcn missed a potential game-winner at the buzzer, and the teams headed to overtime.<\/p>\n
Chet Holmgren and SGA knocked down threes out of the gate to give the Thunder a quick lead in overtime, but the Rockets crawled back into the mix.<\/p>\n
Down by a pair with 10 seconds remaining in OT, \u015eeng\u00fcn missed a shot, grabbed his own rebound, and threw down a dunk to tie the game at 115.<\/p>\n
SGA missed a game-winner for the Thunder, and Durant grabbed the rebound and attempted to call a timeout with one second left \u2014 even though the Rockets had none remaining.<\/p>\n
In a stroke of luck for Houston, the referees did not notice KD\u2019s incorrect signal and let the clock run out. OKC players and coaches protested that they should have been awarded a free throw for the violation, but the officials ruled to let the game continue into double overtime.<\/p>\n
In the waning moments of the second overtime period, Durant gave Houston the lead with a tough and-one layup, but SGA eventually tied the game with a jumper and put OKC back in front by one with a free throw.<\/p>\n
On Houston\u2019s next possession, Jabari Smith Jr. fought for a crucial offensive rebound, and Durant found \u015eeng\u00fcn for an inside score. Houston led 124\u2013123 with 11 seconds remaining.<\/p>\n
The Thunder got the ball back, and Gilgeous-Alexander drew a foul on KD, earning a trip to the line and sinking both free throws. To add insult to injury, the foul was Durant\u2019s sixth, so he was ejected prior to Houston\u2019s final possession.<\/p>\n
Jabari Smith Jr.\u2019s attempt at the buzzer was off target, and the Thunder escaped with the one-point win.<\/p>\n
Next up<\/p>\n
The Rockets will return to the court to play the Pistons in their first home game of the season on Friday. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. from the Toyota Center.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2025 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Tuesday, the Houston Rockets tipped off the 2025\u201326 NBA regular season with a road visit against the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231593,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,726,7220,7216,590,44,5548,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-231592","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-houston-rockets","12":"tag-kevin-durant","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}