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Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 35 points, including two from the free-throw line with 2.3 seconds remaining in double overtime, lifting the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 125-124 home win over the Houston Rockets on Tuesday in the season opener.
Before the game, Oklahoma City’s championship banner was raised into the rafters and the players were presented with their championship rings for last year’s title run.
Then the Thunder and Rockets locked into a wild back-and-forth game, largely featuring Gilgeous-Alexander and Chet Holmgren coming up with big plays for Oklahoma City as Alperen Sengun and Kevin Durant did the same for Houston.
In the end, it was Gilgeous-Alexander coming up with the final big moment.
After Sengun put the Rockets ahead by one with a driving finger roll off a feed from Durant with 11 seconds left, Gilgeous-Alexander drove to the basket and drew a foul on Durant.
The foul was Durant’s sixth, ending his Rockets debut.
Gilgeous-Alexander, who had missed four of his 12 earlier free throws, hit both of his foul shots to put Oklahoma City ahead. Jabari Smith Jr.’s turnaround shot at the buzzer missed the mark to give the Thunder the win.
Holmgren, who fouled out in the first overtime, finished with 28 points and seven rebounds.
Sengun, who sank a career-high five 3-pointers, finished with 39 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists. Durant scored 23 points and pulled down nine boards.
For much of the game, it looked as if the Rockets would spoil the Thunder’s celebration.
Houston’s big lineup, with four 6-foot-11 players, gave Oklahoma City fits early.
But the Thunder crept back into the game with stingy defense, forced overtime late, then Gilgeous-Alexander and Holmgren took over offensively.
Houston led by as many as 12 points in the second half, but the Thunder – as they had plenty of times during last season’s title run – didn’t go away.
Oklahoma City struggled from distance throughout the game, but Cason Wallace drained a 3-pointer with 2:01 remaining to pull his team within 101-100.
Gilgeous-Alexander then came up with a steal on the ensuing possession.
Smith was initially called for a foul on Gilgeous-Alexander’s subsequent drive to the basket, though the foul – but not Oklahoma City’s possession – was overturned on review.
Gilgeous-Alexander then drained a jumper to put Oklahoma City ahead for the first time since the second quarter.
Sengun hit a driving jumper over Alex Caruso to put the Rockets back up front with 38.4 seconds left.
After Wallace missed a 3-point attempt, Durant drew a foul from Luguentz Dort with 10 seconds left.
But Durant, who joined Houston after an offseason trade from the Phoenix Suns, missed the first of two free throws.
Durant made the second to put Houston up 104-102 before Gilgeous-Alexander pull-up jumper with 2.6 seconds left to force overtime.
Oklahoma City quickly jumped up six in the first OT thanks to Gilgeous- Alexander and Holmgren, but the Thunder missed their last four shots in the period and Sengun tied it with a putback dunk with 8.8 seconds to go shortly after Holmgren fouled out.

MANCHESTER, England: Paris Saint-Germain scored seven, Barcelona hit six and Erling Haaland struck his 24th goal of the season on an action-packed night in the Champions League on Tuesday.

In all, there were 43 goals in nine games, with six teams scoring four or more.

PSV Eindhoven routed Italian champion Napoli 6-2, while Arsenal and Inter Milan also had big wins to maintain their perfect starts in Europe.

But it is defending champion PSG that lead the way at the top of the standings after a wild 7-2 win against Bayer Leverkusen in a match that saw both teams reduced to 10 men in the first half.

Barcelona’s 6-1 win against Olympiakos saw them bounce back from a loss to PSG at the start of the month.

Premier League leader Arsenal beat Atletico Madrid 4-0, with Viktor Gyokeres scoring twice, and last season’s Champions League runner-up Inter beat Union Saint-Gilloise by the same score.

Haaland’s goal helped Manchester City to a 2-0 win at Villarreal.

PSG run wild in Leverkusen

By halftime at the BayArena PSG was 4-1 up — but that didn’t come close to telling the full story of a chaotic first period, which included a red card for each team and two penalties for Leverkusen.

Two goals for Desire Doue put the French champion well in control and the action continued after the break with Nuno Mendes extending the lead within five minutes of the restart. Ousmane Dembele also came off the bench to make a scoring return after injury.

“That’s three games, three wins, and crucially we’re at the top of the UEFA Champions League table,” Dembele said. “We’ve started this campaign really well, especially considering how difficult it was last season.”

Spare a thought for Aleix Garcia, though. As well as his first half penalty, he scored the goal of the game in the second half with a swerving long range effort that was nothing more than a footnote.

Lopez treble

Fermin Lopez scored a hat trick and Marcus Rashford hit two goals as Barcelona blew away 10-man Olympiakos.

Barca took full advantage when Santiago Hezze was shown a contentious red card in the second half — scoring four goals to complete the rout.

It was Lopez’s first hat trick of his career, with Lamine Yamal also on the scoresheet from the penalty spot.

Olympiakos had no answer when Hezze was shown a second yellow card in the 57th minute, despite replays appearing to show he did not make contact with Marc Casado, who was trying to pull him back.

Just three minutes earlier, the visitors had got back into the game at 2-1 after Ayoub El Kaabi’s penalty.

Then with the extra man Barcelona overwhelmed Olympiakos with four goals in 11 minutes.

Rashford, on loan from Manchester United, now has four goals in three games in the Champions League this season.

“Sometimes it’s difficult to break opponents down, but we have so many goalscoring players in different areas that getting goals is the least of our worries,” he said.

Arsenal power past Atletico

Top of the Premier League and perfect in Europe, Arsenal are flying high.

A powerful second half at the Emirates saw Mikel Arteta’s team brush aside Atletico with summer signing Gyokeres sealing the victory with two goals in three minutes. Those goals ended the striker’s seven-game scoring drought for Arsenal.

“I am delighted as he fully deserves it. The workrate he brings to the team is outstanding. We value a lot of things that he does for the team and it was the biggest smile on his face today,” Arteta said.

Goals from Gabriel Magalhaes and Gabriel Martinelli had given Arsenal a 2-0 lead before Gyokeres struck.

Arsenal are third in the standings — behind PSG and Inter on goal difference.

Red-hot Haaland

Haaland just can’t stop scoring right now.

The Norway international’s opener at Villarreal was his 24th in 14 games this season and extended his current scoring streak to 12 games in a row. He now has 53 goals in the Champions League in just 51 appearances.

The only game he didn’t score in this term was City’s 2-0 defeat to Tottenham in August.

Bernardo Silva was also on target as City moved up to fifth.

Napoli stunned in Eindhoven

The biggest shock of the night was Napoli’s defeat at PSV.

That’s back-to-back losses for Antonio Conte’s team, following Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at Torino. And such a heavy loss in Europe will be particularly humbling for the Italian champion, with three goals conceded in the last 10 minutes after going down to 10 men when Lorenzo Lucca was sent off in the 76th.

Napoli have just one win from three games in Europe so far.

It’s going better for Inter, who have a 100 percent record after three games and comfortably overcame Union Saint-Gilloise, with Lautaro Martinez scoring for the third time in the Champions League this season.

Newcastle and Dortmund win

Harvey Barnes scored twice in Newcastle’s 3-0 win against Benfica and Borussia Dortmund won 4-2 in Copenhagen.

Kazakhstani team Kairat picked up their first point in European soccer’s elite club competition with a 0-0 draw against Pafos.