In a poetic matchup between the past and present of the Oklahoma City Thunder down the stretch of Tuesday night's game against the visiting Houston Rockets, it was the reigning NBA Most Valuable Player who came out on top.

With the Thunder trailing the Rockets by a point with under 10 seconds left in the second overtime, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander got the ball with the opportunity to win the game for OKC. Guarded by the much taller and lengthier Kevin Durant, Gilgeous-Alexander managed to draw a shooting foul from Durant, which was also the latter's sixth of the contest.

Gilgeous-Alexander made Durant pay for that foul, as he had countless times before to opposing defenders, as he knocked down both shots from the foul line to put Oklahoma City in front by a point.

The Rockets called a timeout after Gilgeous-Alexander's free throws, but with Durant disqualified from the game after maxing out his fouls, Houston didn't have one of the game's most dangerous scorers in history to take the last shot. Instead, the Rockets' fate came down to a tough 19-foot jumper from Jabari Smith Jr. — that didn't find its target.

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With that, the Thunder escaped with a 125-124 win in the first game of the 2025-26 NBA season. It was indeed a wild night in Day 1 for the league's new campaign.

Gilgeous-Alexander paced all Thunder scorers with 35 points on 12-for-26 shooting from the floor and 10-for-14 from the charity stripe. Chet Holmgren added 28 points while Ousmane Dieng came off the bench and chipped in 16 points.

As for the Rockets, they got a game-high 39 points from star big man Alperen Sengun, who also had 11 rebounds and seven assists. Durant, meanwhile, finished with 23 points, nine rebounds and three assists in 47 minutes of action in his first game in Houston threads.

The Rockets will look to recover from the loss this coming Friday when they play their season home opener against the Detroit Pistons. Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder, on the other hand, will shoot for a 2-0 start in a rematch of the 2025 NBA Finals this Thursday versus the Tyrese Haliburton-less Indiana Pacers on the road.