{"id":376744,"date":"2025-10-21T13:59:18","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T17:59:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cms.northstargaming.ca\/admin\/nsgcms\/?p=376744"},"modified":"2025-10-21T13:59:18","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T17:59:18","slug":"rockets-vs-thunder-sgp-predictions-october-21-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms.northstargaming.ca\/admin\/nsgcms\/rockets-vs-thunder-sgp-predictions-october-21-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Rockets vs. Thunder NBA opening night SGP predictions: Bet on defending champs to spoil Durant&#8217;s Houston debut"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder host the Houston Rockets on Tuesday night in the NBA&#8217;s season opener.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The pregame narrative:<\/strong> OKC and Houston play in the first game of an opening night doubleheader, with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Kevin Durant headlining the action. The Thunder were the best home team in the NBA last year and are favoured to tip off the new season with a win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Check out my +360 Rockets vs. Thunder same-game parlay predictions for the NBA&#8217;s season opener, in Oklahoma City on Oct. 21.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"acq_only\"><strong>-> <a href=\"https:\/\/online.northstarbets.ca\/page?key=ej0xMzUyNDU3MiZsPTEzNjY1NzMyJnA9MzExMjU%3D\">Join NorthStar Bets to start betting on the NBA<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Rockets vs. Thunder SGP predictions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>SGP: Holmgren 2+ threes | <strong>Sheppard 2+ threes | <\/strong>Thunder ML (+360)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Chet Holmgren 2+ threes (+110):<\/strong> Isaiah Joe and Jalen Williams ranked first and fourth, respectively, in 3-point attempts per game for the Thunder last year. Both are out tonight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Their 11.2 attempts\/game may not directly translate for the remaining players, but the absences do create more opportunities than usual for other guys. To me, that adds intrigue to Holmgren&#8217;s line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Holmgren shot a respectable 37.9% from deep last year on 3.6 attempts.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>He shot 10-for-17 (58.8%) beyond the arc in three games vs. the Rockets last year, going 2-1 vs. this number.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Dating back to the 2023-24 season, Holmgren has played 16 games without J-Dub, and the 3-point numbers have been great in terms of volume and efficiency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In those 16 games, Holmgren shot 44.4% from 3-point range on 5.1 attempts. He went 11-5 vs. this milestone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"acq_only\"><strong>-> <a href=\"https:\/\/online.northstarbets.ca\/page?key=ej0xMzUyNDU3MiZsPTEzNjY1NzMyJnA9MzExMjU%3D\">Bet on Holmgren and more Rockets vs. Thunder prop markets<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">NBA opening night SGP picks<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Reed Sheppard 2+ threes (-155):<\/strong> Like Holmgren, Sheppard is a high lottery pick who&#8217;s been brought along slowly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But with Fred VanVleet out for the year, Sheppard should see a huge lift in usage as a sophomore. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ideally, Sheppard takes over as the starting point guard for Houston. Tonight, though, he&#8217;ll come off the bench.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I don&#8217;t see that as a bad thing, given that it should mean more time for Sheppard to be a second-unit alpha rather than deferring to the team&#8217;s primary scorers (Kevin Durant, Alperen Sengun).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sheppard shot 10-for-23 (43.5%) from deep in his final three preseason games and cashed this bet each time. That includes one game coming off the bench.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"acq_only\"><strong>-> <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/online.northstarbets.ca\/page?key=ej0xMzUyNDU3MiZsPTEzNjY1NzMyJnA9MzExMjU%3D\"><strong>Don&#8217;t miss out \u2014 Bet on the opening night of the NBA<\/strong>!<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Thunder moneyline (-275):<\/strong> Between Durant&#8217;s debut for the Rockets and Amen Thompson&#8217;s expected ascent, there&#8217;s a lot to be excited about in Houston.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I don&#8217;t expect the season to get off to a winning start, though, because the Oklahoma City Thunder are still the toast of the league.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>OKC is favoured to win it all after capturing the NBA championship last summer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Thunder had an NBA-high .820 win percentage at home in 2024-25. They won all three home games vs. the Rockets by a combined 43 points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rockets vs. Thunder predictions made at 12:05 p.m. on 10\/21\/2025.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"thestar\">Looking to get started? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.northstarbets.ca\/register?utm_medium=&amp;utm_campaign=&amp;utm_content=%3Futm_source%3D&amp;utm_medium=&amp;utm_campaign=&amp;utm_content=&amp;clientType=sportsbook#home\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Sign up here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"acq_only\"><strong>-> <a href=\"https:\/\/online.northstarbets.ca\/page?key=ej0xMzUyNDU3MiZsPTEzNjY1NzMyJnA9MzExMjU%3D\">Sign up to NorthStar Bets today<\/a>!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder host the Houston Rockets on Tuesday night in the NBA&#8217;s season opener. The pregame narrative: OKC and Houston play in the first game of an opening night doubleheader, with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Kevin Durant headlining the action. The Thunder were the best home team in the NBA last year [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":376785,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sidebar_plugin_meta_block_field":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-376744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Rockets vs. Thunder predictions: Oct. 21 NBA SGP | The Boost<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Read our Rockets vs. Thunder SGP predictions for NBA opening night on Oct. 21, 2025. 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