Revealing takeaways from a clash of titans

Rockets/Thunder hinted at some compelling themes for the upcoming season

What an epic way to tip off the 2025-26 NBA season.

Normally, I don’t post on Wednesdays, but I am just too excited not to talk ball with you all. I’ve got 45 minutes to work with, so please forgive any typos and the lack of polish as I work through some insights and takeaways in bullet form.

It’s only one game, so the usual caveats apply.

• Both these teams will be really, really good. It wasn’t pretty basketball, particularly on Houston’s side, but the intensity and level of play popped off the screen.

• Houston has so much to work out on both sides. The offense was as space-constrained as we all assumed, but even on defense, they had horrible communication all night. To my recollection, OKC had at least three plays that resulted in wide-open layups or dunks thanks to miscues by the Rockets.
  
  That said, the Houston defense should be really good when they’ve had a little more time to gel. The size difference between them and OKC was profound. And, despite obvious struggles, the Rockets nearly beat the defending champs (minus Jalen Williams, but still!). That’s a promising foundation.

• The Thunder’s offense really struggled for most of the first quarter — except for Chet Holmgren, who showed off a bunch of vaguely Durantian jumpers to keep the team afloat. Amen Thompson had Shai Gilgeous-Alexander completely out of the game in the first, before Tari Eason (more on him later) came in and almost immediately gave up SGA’s first bucket.

• The Thunder’s pressure on Houston’s shaky ballhanders generated a ton of deflections and turnovers, particularly in the early part of the game. It was funny watching Amen Thompson and Ime Udoka eventually realize that if passing was so fraught, perhaps Thompson should simply hit the turbo button and score! This will be a problem all season, but nobody in the league is as good at getting into ballhandlers and disrupting at the point of attack as the Thunder. It was trial by fire, and Houston got burned, but smoother sailing should be ahead.

• OKC’s first-shot defense was fantastic, but they might have missed Jalen Williams (still out with a wrist injury) more on that end than on offense. Holmgren, in particular, had a hard time handling the physicality of Alperen Sengun and Steven Adams, and he eventually fouled out (as did Isaiah Hartenstein; IHart and Adams battling each other for every rebound was delightful trench warfare).