Author Alperen Sengun’s stat line has not been seen before in NBA history

The Houston Rockets and The Oklahoma City Thunder have started the NBA season on Tuesday night with an instant classic, and the Thunder are coming away with a dramatic 125-124 victory in double overtime.

The Thunder were soaking wet after a long playoff run that culminated in an NBA championship, while the Rockets were clearly still adjusting to life without Fred VanVleet and with Kevin Durant in the lineup. Alperen Sengun he helped them bridge that gap with an absolutely monster game to keep the Rockets in it.

Sengun finished with a fantastic stat line of 39 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists while shooting 12-for-24 from the field and 5-for-8 from 3-point range, setting career records in the process.

With this play, Sengun became the first center in NBA history, he recorded at least 25 points, five rebounds and five assists, while at the beginning of the season he took away five three-pointers, according to StatMuse. He is also the first player at any position to record at least 39 points, 11 boards and seven dimes on his team first game of the seasonaccording to Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press.

Sengun ended his night with what he thought was the game-winning layup with 15 seconds left, but Shai Gilgeous-Alexander made a pair of game-winning free throws with 2.3 seconds left.

Sengun has long been a stat stuffer, but his production from beyond the arc was easily the most important part of his game Tuesday night. He knocked down just 23.3% of his 3-pointers last season while taking just over one per game, so he appears to have gained a lot of confidence in that shot during the offseason. If he can continue to shoot the floor and knock down threes, that will be a huge asset to this Rockets offense.

Sengun opening up his outside shot gives Ime Udoka a lot of options with his lineups. Last season in the playoffs, the Rockets hired a a double-sized line-up with Sengun playing alongside Steven Adams against the smaller Golden State Warriors. That will be harder to sustain in the regular season if the Rockets play both Adams and Amen Thompson with Sengun, but the Turkish big man’s addition of a 3-point shot changes the spacing and allows him to function.

Both the Thunder and Rockets are defending contenders near the top of the Western Conference, so they will go back and forth throughout the season. If this season opener was any indication, this could be one of the best rivalries in the NBA all season.