Opening night in Oklahoma City includes championship rings, banner, two OTs, victory
Wild season opener the undercard to so much history before the tip
Oklahoma City’s best basketball moment on Tuesday, opening night of the NBA’s 80th season, taking on the Houston Rockets and their recent free agent acquisition, guy by the name of Kevin Durant?
Was there one?
Though many might have been, none became the catalyst allowing the Thunder to finally take flight and put the Rockets away.
Like, it might have come, after a Cason Wallace steal and dunk and an Aaron Wiggins 3 to make it a one-point game in the third quarter, OKCs next trip down the court when a Wiggins’ drive to the basket appeared certain to give the Thunder the edge.
But Wiggins dribbled into trouble, got off a bad shot and Houston followed with a basket at the other end.
Or it might have come right after that, after a Wallace 3 tied it; only for Alperin Sengun to follow with one of his 39-point night’s five 3-pointers, putting the Rockets up by three again.
Or it might have come early in the fourth quarter, when three straight points-bearing trips down the court — the last following a momentum-swinging drawn charge from Isaiah Hartenstein against Sengun — again brought the Thunder within a basket.
Instead, after Josh Okogie missed a 3 on Houston’s end, Wallace turned it over on OKC’s end and Segun followed with a natural three-point play and Okogie with a free throw and, just like that, the Rocket lead was back to six.
It absolutely should have come in the original overtime, when OKC began with 3-pointers from Chet Holmgren and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, yet the six-point advantage they provided proved not safe and an end-of-frame Segun deuce forced a second OT.
Leaving only this:
Two free throws from SGA with 2.3 seconds remaining after the Thunder MVP, double-teamed by Durant and Segun, got Durant to forget his astounding height and reach advantage, bite on a fade-away pump fake and foul out of the game.
Though he’d missed three of his previous six charities, SGA made both and the one-point edge — 125-124 — held up, Jabari Smith missing a hurried and guarded 3 as time expired.
That’s how OKC survived opening night, despite canning just 13 of 52 3-point attempts, despite the starters — SGA, Holmgren, Hartenstein, Wallace, Lu Dort — canning 6 of 31.
Of course, the Thunder feasted on 22 Rocket turnovers and gave back only 11, only four after the first quarter. Of course, as we’ve become accustomed, they just wouldn’t die, even as SGA struggled horribly through three quarters, even as Jalen Williams — J-Dub — recovering from a wrist injury, was not available to help.
“Grit, determination and defense,” Gilgeous-Alexader said was the difference. “We know how we do it down there at that end.
“We give ourselves a chance any night no matter what’s going on. Makes, misses, bad luck, good luck, it doesn’t matter.”
That was the game.
An opening-night, two-extra-session classic on real-life network television, the great Mike Tirico on NBC’s call, from sold out Paycom Center.
The best moment apart from the game, on the night the Thunder received their mammoth championship rings, jeweled constructions so large their disassembly revealed a second ring — a band for more comfortable wearing — also the night the city’s first major league championship banner got raised to the rafters?
Personally, I was entertained when Jaylin Williams — J-Will — forgot his ring.
The way it worked, public address announcer Mario Nanni announced each player and, on the way to picking up their rings, they would first hug NBA commissioner Adam Silver, then Thunder general manager Sam Presti, then, finally, Thunder owner Clay Bennett, who, post-hug, would hand over the box with the ring inside.
J-Will got the hugs in just fine, yet after embracing Bennett continued toward his teammates who’d already received their rings, only without his box, mistakenly leaving it with Bennett.
It happened quickly, nobody seemed to notice, though some must have and that was that.
Really, because he’s so likable in the first place, it only made Williams more human and more likable.
But the actual best moment had to be when the banner began to rise, each Thunder teammate placing fingers on it to feel it rising.
They’re amazing athletic specimens and they make an obscene amount of money but sometimes they’re just basketball players, much like the kids they must have been when first introduced to the game and not so much like the men they’ve since become, forever under pressure to perform for themselves, their teammates, their franchise, their city, the the whole state and the masses tuning in from around the globe.
Oh, yes, SGA somehow finished with 35 points, Holmgren with 28, Wallace with 14 and Aaron Wiggins with 10.
Durant, who played 47 minutes at age 37, finished with 23 and, when he got to his spots, you knew it was going in.
It’s a shame he and the city can’t get along.
Oh, well.
So, count one lament from a fabulous, amazing, classic, stupendous opening night.
Only eighty-one more and two months of playoffs to go.
It was an amazing game, and I’m so glad the best team won, though I was in the edge of my seat the entire overtimes!
Couldn't agree more. Man, that Wiggins drive, what if he'd just sunk it? Totallly different game. You really captured the tension.