What a return to basketball we saw on the NBA’s opening night. The 2025-26 season began with the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder hosting the Houston Rockets and their former star, Kevin Durant, as they hoisted their banner and received their rings from June’s championship. The NBA hoped that bringing Durant back to Oklahoma City would deliver some drama, and it absolutely did, as the Thunder pulled out a 125-124 double-overtime victory.
The game was one of the more exciting you’ll probably see all season. The Rockets led most of the way, but the Thunder clawed back into the game in the fourth quarter and sent the game to overtime. In the first extra period, it was Oklahoma City who built a big lead, but Houston managed to tie things up ahead of one last Thunder possession. A Shai Gilgeous-Alexander miss in the closing seconds looked to end that first overtime period in yet another tie.
Except, before the clock officially expired, it looked as though Durant called a timeout after gathering the rebound. The problem? Houston didn’t have a timeout. Therefore, the Rockets should have been assessed a technical foul, and Oklahoma City theoretically should have been awarded a potential game-winning free throw. However, the officials seemingly didn’t notice, and the game continued into the second overtime.
It’s a technical foul we see called every now and then, and it happened most notably to Chris Webber in the 1993 National Championship Game when he was playing for Michigan. But it’s still a rarity, and it would have been an embarrassment for Durant to begin his Rockets tenure by potentially blowing his debut against his former team on such a mistake.
Instead, Durant was bailed out. The officials missed the signal, or ignored it. The game resumed in the second overtime, and the Rockets still had a chance to win. Ironically, it was another Durant mistake that gave the game to the Thunder. In the closing seconds with Houston leading by one, Gilgeous-Alexander managed to get Durant in the air early and drew a foul as a result. He made both free-throws, and that was the difference in the Thunder victory.
