Play is fantastic with Westbrook on floor

ussell Westbrook didn’t like the question, even though it wasn’t asked of him.

After the Thunder put their season on the edge of oblivion with a 113-109 Game 4 loss to the Rockets on Sunday, a game that would have been won had the Thunder been anything but comatose when Westbrook twice took a breather, I asked Steven Adams what keeps happening for the few but deadly moments when OKC has to play without its superstar.

Westbrook intercepted the question, didn’t let Adams answer and lectured the media — I don’t think it was anything personal toward me — on creating divisions within the team. “I don’t want nobody to try to split us up.”

But the only thing that’s going to split up the Thunder is one more loss to Houston, and that’s coming quick if OKC keeps falling off the boat every time Westbrook checks out of the game.

Westbrook played 38 minutes, 42 seconds, during which the Thunder played mostly fantastic. Outscored Houston 99-85 during that time. But Westbrook twice took a seat. And Norris Cole, who in December was playing in China, quarterbacked the Thunder through two disastrous stretches.

Give the Rockets credit. With Westbrook on the floor down the stretch, the Rockets made the plays to win the game. But in this hotly-contested series, which Houston now leads three games to one, the Thunder is incapable of blowing out the Rockets. Because when OKC has a big lead, it goes bye-bye when Westbrook rests.

“We have to adjust,” Taj Gibson said, not necessarily meaning personnel. “The guys that come in off the bench from everybody, we have to adjust, we have to be ready. You never know when your number’s going to be called. That’s why everybody gets paid in the NBA. Everybody is in the NBA for a reason.”

The last three games, which have all gone to the wire, the Thunder has outscored Houston by 28