Durant blames himself after Rockets' 2OT loss

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Kevin Durant blamed himself for a Houston Rockets debut gone awry Tuesday, arsenic the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder bested his caller club, 125-124, successful treble overtime astatine Paycom Center.

"I missed the escaped throws, and I fouled idiosyncratic astatine the end," Durant said. "I deliberation those 2 plays are the crushed we lost."

On the nighttime Oklahoma City celebrated its NBA rubric with a ringing ceremonial and raised a title banner to the rafters, Durant scored 23 points connected 9-of-16 shooting and committed 2 important mistakes that helium believes outgo Houston the crippled earlier fouling retired with 2.3 seconds remaining. The Rockets led 124-123 with 11 seconds near successful the 2nd overtime play erstwhile a pump fake by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander lured Durant into his sixth foul, which sent the reigning MVP to the free-throw enactment to deed the winning escaped throws.

"Fouled Shai, enactment them up one," Durant said. "I've got to enactment down, beryllium much disciplined [with] those opportunities to get a halt to seal the game."

The play marked what Durant mightiness see the 2nd squandered accidental to locomotion retired of a sold-out arena victorious. With 9.5 seconds near successful regulation, Durant missed the archetypal of 2 escaped throws with the Rockets starring 103-102. Durant connected connected the 2nd escaped propulsion to enactment Houston up by 2 points, but Gilgeous-Alexander deed a 16-footer with 2.6 ticks near connected the timepiece to nonstop the crippled into overtime.

Catastrophe for Durant and the Rockets astir unfolded successful the archetypal overtime period, too. The 37-year-old snatched a rebound with 2.2 seconds remaining and signaled for a timeout that Houston didn't person arsenic teammate Alperen Sengun ran implicit to halt him. The play resulted successful a cascade of boos from a assemblage of 18,203. A postgame excavation study revealed that referees didn't whistle Durant for a method foul connected the play due to the fact that nary of the crippled officials saw the guardant awesome for the timeout, according to unit main Zach Zarba.

"I deliberation decidedly helium called timeout astir 3 times -- verbally and physically with his hands," Gilgeous-Alexander said. "I deliberation the refs conscionable missed it, but that's life. You marque mistakes successful life, and you determination on. Nothing excessively crazy. They didn't bash it connected intent oregon anything. It's conscionable life. You miss things. You marque mistakes. You determination on."

Despite a unsmooth debut, Durant flashed a glimpse of what Houston's discourtesy could beryllium down the roadworthy erstwhile the Rockets robust retired immoderate of the wrinkles. Durant changeable 5 of 6 connected two-point jumpers connected Tuesday for a squad that experienced lone 1 lawsuit past play of a subordinate hitting 5 oregon much of his 2-point leap shots successful a game. All of Durant's made 2-point tract goals came wrong the last 8 seconds of the changeable clock, according to GeniusIQ, tying for his astir specified makes successful a crippled since 2013-14, erstwhile subordinate tracking began.

When Houston needed to make a coagulated look with the changeable timepiece winding down, it made definite to find Durant.

"He's making our jobs easy," Sengun said. "With [more] clip we're going to get amended and amended together."

Durant managed to inflict his harm successful an discourtesy that was mostly facilitated by Sengun, who made a career-high 5 3 pointers, scoring a game-high 39 points with 11 rebounds and a team-high 7 assists.

"It's incredible," Durant said of Sengun's performance. "We're gonna request that from him arsenic overmuch arsenic we can. Getting downhill, making plays. There was a batch of abstraction for him retired there, too, astatine the apical of the cardinal wherever helium likes to work. So, [it's] thing that he's got to get utilized to with conscionable having truthful overmuch country to run now. So, helium knocked down the 3 well, changeable it with confidence. We're gonna request that going forward."

Houston trotted retired a starting portion against the Thunder that stood an mean tallness of...