NBA expert takes on opening night: The Rockets are for real, and the Lakers aren’t

For the Oklahoma City Thunder, opening night was about getting their rings and establishing that they're ready to pick up right where they left off in June. For the Houston Rockets, opening night was about proving they belong in the contender conversation. We heard both teams loud and clear.

The Thunder came away with a 125-124 win in double overtime. They survived without Jalen Williams and made it through a night of remarkable cold 3-point shooting (13-of-52, 25 percent) by leaning on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and their ferocious defense. The reigning MVP finished with 35 points, including 24 in the fourth quarter and overtime. The Thunder defense forced 22 turnovers with 29 deflections. Nothing came easy, and they still proved, again, that they can win ugly.

The Rockets, on the other hand, showed us something new.

The Rockets point-guard by committee might actually work

Fred VanVleet's torn ACL creates a big point guard hole for the Rockets and Opening Night was our first real chance to see how their solution — a combination of Amen Thompson, Reed Sheppard and more ball-handling responsibilities for Alperen Şengün — would work. There is obviously still a lot of work to do, but the early returns were encouraging.

Sheppard missed some jumpers he should have made, and his defense may keep him off the floor in big moments going forward. But he chipped in 4 assists and will clearly be able to help off the bench. Thompson had issues of his own — 5 assists to 4 turnovers — but this is a big jump in responsibility and he's going to get better.

The real win for the Rockets was seeing how much Şengün can help.

In his 25-under-25 profile on Şengün, Matt Moore highlighted the opportunities VanVleet's absences could provide for him and the Rockets.

"The loss of Fred VanVleet is huge, but one upside of losing the two primary ball-handlers from last year in FVV and Green is that they can finally put Şengün in the pinch post up top and run cutters off him. Putting him in more opportunities to be Jokić-like is always moving him closer to being optimized."

Şengün finished with seven assists and found teammates from a variety of spots. He hit a few early dimes from the elbows but also took a mismatch down into the post to draw a second defender and create an easy layup.

The Rockets consistently generated good looks with Şengün and Durant working together in the two-man game at the top of the key. When the Thunder tried to disrupt their rhythm with Alex Caruso on Şengün, they either forced switches for open jumpers or let the big man attack. Caruso did take away some of the playmaking openings for Şengün with his aggressive ball pressure, but Şengün just pivoted to scorer — per the NBA's player tracking stats, he scored 17 points on 6-of-8 shooting in the 35 possessions Caruso was his primary defender.

Add in the fact that Şengün also hit 5-of-8 from beyond the arc and the Rockets have to be thrilled.

None of the Sheppard, Şengün, Thompson trio is anything close to a 1-to-1 replacement for VanVleet. But they all offer playmaking and the threat of perimeter scoring in novel ways for this offense. With Durant's incredible shot-making as a pressure release valve, this Rockets' offense looks like it could still be incredibly dangerous even without their starting point guard.

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Cason Wallace is ridiculous

The Thunder may tinker with their starting lineup, depending on the matchup. Chet Holmgren, SGA, Dort and Williams (when healthy) are locked in. The fifth spot will probably go to Caruso, Isaiah Hartenstein or Cason Wallace depending on the matchup. But if Wallace keeps playing like he did against the Rockets, he may just steal the spot outright.

Wallace finished with 14 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 steals. He's just entering his third season, but he's already so calm and under control on offense. He's a tremendous spot-up shooter but also knows exactly when to attack and leverage a scattered defense in front of him. But it's his ball pressure that really sets him apart.

The NBA's hustle stats only credited him with four deflections, but it felt like he had a dozen. He also came up with three defensive loose balls and, in a game that came down to a single possession after 58 minutes, he created or preserved so many for the Thunder.

The ridiculous depth of this team is a familiar narrative, but Wallace may be ready to step out of the shadows and move from solid rotation guy to borderline star this year.

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The Lakers are in big trouble without LeBron James

The Lakers generated a lot of excitement this offseason with the physical transformation of Luka Dončić and the additions of Deandre Ayton and Marcus Smart. But that obscures the fact that this roster is extremely mid.

Dončić was mind-bogglingly productive on Opening Night — 43 points, 12 rebounds and 9 assists — and the Lakers still lost 119-109. The rest of the Lakers were 6-of-22 on 3-pointers and combined for 16 turnovers. Ayton was disastrously bad on defense, turned the ball over a ton, and struggled to punish a much smaller Warriors team in the paint. He may actually have made their interior defense worse and, for all his talent, doesn't look like a good fit next to Dončić on offense.

When LeBron's back, things are different — even if the same underlying problems exist. He, Dončić and Reaves can carry the Lakers to plenty of wins on talent alone. But watching them without LeBron emphasizes that this supporting cast is much weaker than the one Dončić was playing with in Dallas. It doesn't have even one high-level, rim-protecting rim-runner, let alone two like Daniel Gafford and Dereck Lively. It has defensive forwards and floor-spacing forwards, but it doesn't have one who can do both like P.J. Washington or Grant Williams.

The Lakers are still probably good enough to avoid the Play-In, assuming everyone can stay healthy. But even with LeBron on the floor, this is a shaky foundation for a deep playoff run.