To say that the Oklahoma City Thunder, the reigning champion, have a massive target on their back would be a major understatement. Every team is looking to snatch the Thunder's chain, and there is not a team in the entire NBA that's looking to get revenge on OKC more than the Indiana Pacers — the team that OKC beat to win their first title.
On Thursday night, the Thunder and Pacers faced off in a rematch of the 2025 NBA Finals, and as one would expect, Oklahoma City got the biggest punch it could get from Indiana even though they're without Tyrese Haliburton and TJ McConnell.
Thanks to some heroics from Pascal Siakam in regulation and an impressive defensive stop on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in overtime, the Pacers have pushed this game to two extra periods, making it the first time in NBA history that Oklahoma City began the season with two double-overtime games, as pointed out by ClutchPoints NBA insider Brett Siegel.
In fact, the Thunder just became the first team in 24 years to open up the season with two back-to-back overtime games, according to Dan Feldman of the Dunc'd On podcast.
The Thunder are surely going to be getting every team's best shot, and there are no greater indicators of that than the Pacers and Houston Rockets giving it their all in OKC's first two games of the new campaign.
The entire league knows that the Thunder are now the league's gold standard, and every team wants to measure up to the defending champion. But like in the first game, this Thunder team is simply too good, especially Gilgeous-Alexander — who wasted no time recording his first 50-point game of the season with an insane scoring outburst against the Pacers.
Thunder start the season 2-0 after two 2OT games
This Thunder squad is not fully healthy to begin the season. Jalen Williams is still recovering from offseason wrist surgery, and on Thursday night, OKC was without its two lockdown defensive guards in Cason Wallace and Alex Caruso, both of whom played a major part in their win on opening night against the Houston Rockets.
Even then, the Thunder have now started the season 2-0, thanks in large part to Gilgeous-Alexander's greatness. He did score the game-winning free throws against the Rockets, baiting Kevin Durant in the process, and on Thursday, he recorded his single-game career-high in scoring, with 55 points. Another MVP season might be in the cards for Gilgeous-Alexander if he keeps this up.
