• Oklahoma City Thunder (0-0) vs. Houston Rockets (0-0)
• When: Tuesday, 21 October 2025 at 6:30pm CST
• Where: Paycom Center, Oklahoma City, OK
• TV: NBC/Peacock

The Set-Up

What do you do when you’ve accomplished the goal you’ve set out to accomplish every year since your existence? Do you rest on your laurels and reminisce about how it felt to reach the mountaintop? Do you become the “y’all remember when” guy? Or do you recognize that to reach the mountaintop again, you have to, as Thunder GM Sam Presti would so eloquently put it, “divorce yourself from the past” and begin anew? The mantra of having a 0-0 mindset while stacking days will be tested this season. Everything this team does this season will be compared to last year. That happens when you bring back every rotational piece that helped you reach your goal. But with that continuity, does complacency creep in? Everyone is saying the right things. Now it’s time to show the right things. Ring night. Banner night. Then the new journey begins.

This is the first of three meetings this season against the Houston Rockets. Last season, the Thunder won the season series 3-2. They faced each other in the NBA Cup semifinals, where the Thunder emerged victorious on their way to the NBA Cup finals.

Betting Info (brought to you by FanDuel)

• Line: OKC -7
• O/U: 228

Injury Report

OKC

• Isaiah Joe – OUT (knee)
• Thomas Sorber – OUT (knee)
• Nikola Topic – OUT (testicular surgery)
• Jalen Williams – OUT (wrist)
• Kenrich Williams – OUT (knee)

HOU

• Isaiah Crawford – Questionable (ankle)
• Dorian Finney-Smith – OUT (ankle)
• Jae’Sean Tate – OUT (ankle)
• Fred VanVleet – OUT (knee)

Three Big Things

1. Jumbo Line-up – The Rockets will feature a starting line-up where the shortest player out there will be 6’7″. (Don’t do the stupid hand shakey thing…and you just did it) If this was two seasons ago, it might be a little worrisome for the Thunder. But with Isaiah Hartenstein, Chet Holmgren, and Jaylin Williams all healthy to begin the season, this shouldn’t worry the Thunder too much. In fact, with the Rockets’ lack of a pure point guard/ball handler, outside of Reed Sheppard, and the lack of spacing, it may actually play into the Thunder’s defensive chaos machine.
2. Brooks Barnhizer – It’ll be interesting to see if Barnhizer gets any burn in this game. He played in all six preseason games where he averaged 30 minutes, 9.5 points, 6.7 rebounds, 1.8 assists, and 2 steals on 44/42/72 shooting splits. The most interesting stat to me is that he averaged 4.2 free throw attempts in those six games. This team loves controlled aggressivity and Barnhizer has that in spades. Last year, as a rookie, Ajay Mitchell averaged 21 minutes per game in the preseason and was a part of the rotation from the start of the season until an injury forced him out of the rotation. With the Thunder being down a couple key rotation pieces due to injury, I could see Barnhizer getting some action early in the season and parlaying that into a role in the rotation.
3. Oh the irony – Kevin Durant…here in OKC, on ring night. To see Durant looking up onto what used to be his kingdom, only see a banner being raised that he had no part in obtaining. Chef’s kiss. I may disagree with NBA commissioner Adam Silver that the NBA is a highlight only league. But this right here, this is WWE-level script writing. Bravo! Now cue Roundball Rock!