Kevin Durant made a debut with light and shadow for the Houston Rockets. On the one hand, it became clear how the 37-year-old can help, but on the other hand, he became the tragic hero of the season opener at the Oklahoma City Thunder and took the defeat upon himself.
The Texans lost 124-125 after double overtime, but this defeat could have been avoided. Small details tipped the scales in favor of the Thunder, and Kevin Durant was always involved.
With 23 points (9/16 FG), the forward, who was listed as a shooting guard at 2.11 meters, made a solid debut, but a few mistakes on his part cost the team the victory, which KD himself also recognized. “I missed free throws and fouled someone at the end. Those plays are the reason we lost.”
With the score at 103-102 in favor of the Rockets, Durant marched to the free throw line with eleven seconds left in regulation, but missed his first attempt, and Thunder superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander responded with a mid-range shot to tie the game and send it into overtime.
Durant: Bad mistakes at the end
Shortly before the end of the second overtime, with the score at 124-123 in favor of the Rockets, SGA fouled Durant for the sixth time and went to the free throw line to secure the win for OKC. “I shouldn’t have jumped. I need to be more disciplined. With a stop in that situation, we would have won the game,” said a frustrated Durant, who was also lucky in the first overtime that another mental lapse didn’t cost Houston the possible victory there.
A lot of things were unfortunate, but the vision in Houston and how Durant can help became clearly visible. Last year, the Rockets lacked an option in the half court, but now they have perhaps the best shotmaker of recent years. Although he didn’t make any three-pointers (0/4), the forward converted several difficult mid-range shots as the clock was running down. “He makes life easy for us,” said top scorer Alperen Sengün (39 points). “With time, we’ll be even better together.”
Durant: The big safety net
Durant sees it similarly: “I’m not here to take every shot when the game is close. I feel like just being here helps because it takes the pressure off my teammates. Everyone can make plays, sometimes it will be my game, sometimes it will be Alpi’s, for example.” The start has definitely been promising, partly because not many teams come close to the Thunder’s quality. As last year, the Rockets will be very difficult to play against – and Durant won’t make such mistakes in crunch time too often.