The Houston Rockets fell to the Oklahoma Cty Thunder on Tuesday night, falling 125-124 in overtime in the season opener, allowing the defending champs to come from behind, and allowing some boneheaded
plays to end their night on a sour note.
First, Kevin Durant fouled Shai Gilgeous-Alexander with 2.3 second remaining in the second overtime, and Shai hit both, putting the Thunder up. Durant also attempted to call a timeout that the Rockets didn’t have to end the first overtime. All officials thankfully missed it, or there would have a technical free throw. Alperen Sengun also missed a chance to end it in regulation, missing a fadeaway jumper. And Ime Udoka drew up a terrible play for Jabari Smith Jr. to close out the second OT, and Smith missed a difficult fader to end it.
The Rockets were led in scoring by Alperen Sengun, who finished with 39 points, 11 rebounds and 7 assists. He was 12-for-24 from the field and a career-best 5-for-8 from three. If it’s going to be that kind of year from Alpie from the three-point line, the league is certainly on notice.
The Rockets also got 23 points, 9 rebounds and 3 assists from Durant, but you saw some end of OT stuff from Durant that was less than stellar. He shot 9-for-16 from the floor, but 0-for-4 from three. Amen Thompson had 18 points, 4 rebounds and 5 assists, but he went 0-for-7 from three, and Jabari Smith had 16 points and 5 boards, but missed the potential game-winner on a difficult shot.
Tari Eason was awful last night, finishing with 3 points and 6 boards on 1-for-4 shooting, plus what seemed like a fair amount of terrible offensive plays. He looked like he was pressing. And Reed Sheppard had 9 points and 4 assists but shot just 3-for-11 from the field.
The Rockets finished with 22 team turnovers and really looked like they missed Fred VanVleet’s steady hand offensively. The Rockets may have to do something about the point guard position if they want to be true title contenders, but the season is very young, and they just hung with the defending champs despite the poor offensive execution at times. They also picked up right where they left off last year with poor three-point shooting, hitting just 11-for-39 over for 28.2 percent.
The Thunder were led by Gilgeous-Alexanders’ 35 points. He was just 1-for-9 from deep but scored 30 of his points in second half. Chet Holmgren had 28 points and 7 boards to also help pace the Thunder.
Overall, it was an exciting first game of the season but disappointing that it ended in a loss. But Houston will be back in action on Friday for the home opener versus the Detroit Pistons.
