On the night of Tuesday, October 21st, the NBA hosted two opening night games on their new TV partner channel NBC.
The first game was the reigning 2025 NBA Champions Oklahoma City Thunder hosting the newest young powerhouse out of Texas, the Houston Rockets.
Before the game, Oklahoma City had their championship ring ceremony in front of the Rockets newest and most prominent offseason addition, former Thunder star Kevin Durant. Durant is loathed by the fans of OKC due to him leaving the team to join the 2016 Golden State Warriors dynasty after losing to that same team the season before. Durant got booed during warmups, player introductions, and every time he touched the basketball.
Therefore, it goes without saying there is still some bad blood between the two sides.
The game, however, ended up being an early contender for game of the year. In a duel that took two overtime periods, Oklahoma City pulled out the home opening victory in close fashion, with the final score being 125-124. While the reigning MVP and superstar point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander only had five points to show at halftime, he ended up sinking 12 of his 26 shot attempts, including one out of nine three-point tries and 10 of his 14 free throws. SGA finished the game with 35 points, five rebounds, and five assists.
For Houston, Turkish center Alperen Sengun ended with 39 points, 11 rebounds, and seven assists. He also nailed five of his eight three point attempts.
In the second game of the opening night double header, the aforementioned Golden State Warriors, led by guard Steph Curry and forward Jimmy Butler, marched into Los Angeles to take on the Lakers. What was advertised as one of the last times fans will see Curry and LeBron James face off against each other was quickly derailed when the Lakers announced that James would be sidelined for a couple weeks due to sciatica, a condition that causes nerve pain in the legs and feet. Therefore, European superstar Luka Doncic would need to take the leadership role without the seasoned veteran on the floor.
Doncic had a valiant effort to stand up to the Warriors, but ultimately, his 43 point, 12 rebound, and 9 assist effort wasn’t enough to stand up to the three-point barrage Golden State used to defeat the Lakers comfortably, with the final score ending in a 119-109 Warriors victory.
Only Doncic (43), Austin Reeves (26 points) and DeAndre Ayton (10 points) scored double digit points in the loss. This, along with the Warriors sinking nine more three pointers than the Lakers in a lackluster performance behind the arc and Jimmy Butler’s 31 point, five rebound, and five assist performance prompted JJ Redick to say in a postgame interview that the Lakers self-inflicted wounds beat themselves.
“I think if you look at this game, a microcosm of this game was we did enough good things to put ourselves in a position to win, for most of the game. And when we didn’t do those things, they were self-inflicted.”
