Westbrook ejected as Thunder fall to Grizzlies

Russell Westbrook made headlines for the wrong reasons on Thursday night as he was ejected in the Oklahoma City Thunder’s 114-80 drubbing at the hands of the Memphis Grizzlies.

Houston’s James Harden scored a career-high 53 points, Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook achieved a first-half triple double and LeBron James sparked an injury-hit Cleveland squad in triumphant National Basketball Association efforts. And the Clippers, who were lacking stars Chris Paul and Blake Griffin, were never in it. Sounds like a fun flight back to LA on New Year’s Eve. These were his ninth and 10th technical fouls of the season.

Nicolas Batum narrowly missed a triple-double, while the Charlotte Hornets controlled the second half for a 91-82 victory over the Miami Heat. Although Jimmy Butler put up 26 points with seven rebounds and eight assists, the next highest contributor was Doug McDermott with 14 points.

While it is precociously early to take sides on the matter, if Westbrook can lead OKC to a top-6 seed and also average a triple-double, it almost has to go to him. “I learned in the summertime, once they make a call, they ain’t changing it”.

Enes Kanter came off the bench to lead the Thunder in scoring with 23 points on 6 of 13 shooting. The Clippers are coming off of giving up 140 points in a loss to the Rockets on Friday night, in a contest that could prove as either a sign of things to come against Oklahoma City for the punchless Clips, or a tipping for Los Angeles that adds to the Thunder woe. It oozes out of him – and the rest of the OKC Thunder have caught Westbrook’s contagion. On the other hand, the Thunder don’t have the best history this season against teams playing without their best player.

SUNS 99 bt RAPTORS 91 – Eric Bledsoe scored 22 points and Devin Booker had nine of his 19 in the fourth quarter, helping Phoenix beat Toronto. Austin Rivers scored 14 points and was the only starter to score in double figures. That lineup got smacked in 10 minutes, getting outscored 21-13 while compiling a net rating of -41.7 and missing all 7 threes.

Yes, the Memphis Grizzlies won by 34 points, but not everyone had a ideal game. This is now LA’s longest losing streak since November 2010, when the team lost 9 in a row. In their second meeting of the season last November 11, the Clippers repaid the favor with a 110-108 win in Oklahoma City.