The Oklahoma City Thunder opened the 2025-26 NBA regular season the same way they ended the 2025 NBA postseason. That was with a positive result in the win column. However, the defending champions of the NBA Finals had a very challenging Tuesday night game against the Houston Rockets.
Houston had the momentum for a significant portion of the contest. They had a 63-51 lead two and a half minutes into the third quarter, before the Thunder outscored the Rockets 53-41 to force overtime. However, on this night, one overtime period was not enough. After the Thunder and Rockets scored 11 points each in the first overtime period, the Thunder outscored the Rockets 10-9 in the second overtime period for the very narrow one point victory of 125-124. According to Joe Vardon of The Athletic, it was only the sixth time in NBA history that a game on the opening night of the season went into double overtime.
The Thunder hero on Tuesday, was Canadian point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of Toronto, Ontario. The reigning NBA MVP and NBA Finals MVP had the game winning free throws with two seconds left, and had a team high 35 points. One area where Gilgeous-Alexander did struggle was from beyond the arc. He only made one of nine three point attempts.
It was also a memorable night for NBC, as the American television network returned to broadcasting NBA games for the first time since 2002. NBC also broadcasted the all-California contest between the Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Lakers. The Warriors came out on top 119-109.
