Westbrook saves day for Thunder
SALT LAKE CITY — The Oklahoma City Thunder are alive to play another day, thanks to Russell Westbrook, who took over Wednesday night’s Game 5 in the second half, as he and his teammates rallied from 25 points down to stave off elimination.
Westbrook, the reigning league MVP, scored 33 of his 45 points in the second half, as Oklahoma City roared back to beat Utah 107-99 and send the Western Conference firstround series back to Salt Lake City for Game 6 on Friday night.
“It was win or go home,” said Westbrook, who was more in control than he was in Game 4. “Regardless of what is going on in the game, you have to give yourself a chance to win, and I thought our guys did a good job of that tonight. They did an amazing job of sticking together.”
Westbrook got sidetracked during Monday’s game by a one-on-one matchup with Ricky Rubio. He was in foul trouble for much of the Thunder’s loss and was later fined $10,000 and assessed a technical for an altercation late in that game.
With Oklahoma City trailing 3-1 in the series, he focused up in Game 5 and helped keep the season alive. He made five of 16 shots in the first half and then 12-of-23 in the second. Westbrook also had 15 rebounds and seven assists.
Paul George added 34 points and eight rebounds for the Thunder.
“We stopped playing defense,” Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell said. “We stopped getting back. Our offense got stagnant. They made adjustments and we didn’t make the right adjustments back. We will watch the film and figure out what went wrong, but from my analysis right after the game, we just stopped getting back in transition and they just fed off of that.”
Jae Crowder scored a career playoff-high 27 points and Mitchell had 23 for the Jazz.
“We need to do a better job,” Rubio said. “Of course, you have to give them credit. They made a lot of shots. They took their pride and forced a Game 6. But we are going home and we’ve got to be strong and be confident.”