Basketball – Rockets put Thunder on the brink

The first-round series shifts back to the Toyota Center in Houston on Tuesday night where James Harden and the Rockets will have the opportunity to advance the Western Conference Semifinals. The Rockets defeated the Thunder 113-109. In that game, his stats were 51 points, 10 rebounds, 13 assists. Westbrook is averaging a team-high 38.2 MPG.

“He puts the work in”, Harden said. He’s in the weight room.

From there, though, things did not go the Thunder’s way. “It’s not just one guy”. “Today those guys made plays throughout the whole game and that’s what I tried to do”.

Donovan consistently referenced another game earlier in the year against Phoenix as one when Westbrook had a performance that wasn’t “sustainable”. “That was the case tonight”.

Westbrook had his triple-double – his 44th of the season- by the end of the third quarter. Don’t say when Russell goes out the team don’t play well. “But I asked Steven a question and it’s a legitimate question”, the reporter said. The two went back and forth for a bit but it ended it with a lot of “next question” from Westbrook.

I don’t want nobody to try to split us up. Don’t try to split us up. “It don’t matter. We’re in this together”. We played as a team and that’s all that matters.

Westbrook also had 13 rebounds and 11 assists. When they took the lead with 4:01 to play they were in front for the first time since the first quarter.

The Rockets continued to cut into the deficit to start the second half, taking their first lead of the game on Harden’s 3-pointer less than two minutes into the second half.

The Thunder outscored Houston by 14 points in the 39 minutes Westbrook played.

Westbrook had a triple-double in the first half, making him just the second player in National Basketball Association history with 3 consecutive playoff triple-doubles. But he is shooting 37.3 percent from the field. Like Jerami Grant, who went 5-of-5 with five dunks, or Adams, who finished at the rim off pick-and-roll looks from Westbrook. Roberson missed free throws, going 2-8 from the line while the Rockets scored on the other end.

As a result, the Thunder now trail 3-1 in the series as they go back to Houston. Beverley would not comment on the incident before Saturday’s practice, but said he would speak on it once the NBA’s investigation concluded. “We stick with it”.

The biggest shot from Nene came in the closing seconds when, with Houston up one, the Thunder failed to foul until Trevor Ariza fed Nene under the basket.

Harden, with Andre Roberson picking him up just outside of the arc, saw the lane getting packed with Oklahoma City defenders and chose to pull up for the 3-pointer.

Lance Stephenson scored 22 points for Indiana. But instead of fouling immediately, Oklahoma City allowed Nene to get an and-1. Kyrie Irving added 28 points.

Cleveland await the victor of the Bucks-Raptors series.

Jimmy Butler had 33 points and 9 assists for the Bulls.

Thomas, who left Boston after game two and spent time with his family in Washington State in the wake of his sister’s death in a traffic accident last Saturday, re-joined the Celtics in Chicago.

The Los Angeles Clippers, meanwhile, took a 2-1 series lead in the west after holding on to beat the Utah Jazz 111-106. Luc Mbah a Moute scored a career playoff-high 15 points. He finished with 16 points, eight assists and seven rebounds.