Kings hold off Thunder despite Westbrook’s return
SACRAMENTO — The boos followed Russell Westbrook every time he touched the ball. They started when he re-entered the game in the fourth quarter, a response to an earlier altercation.
They faded into cheers as the Kings beat the Thunder 117-113 at the Golden 1 Center on Monday.
Westbrook returned to the Thunder after missing two weeks for a sprained left ankle and the birth of his twin daughters Saturday. He finished the game with 29 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists, but it was short of a glorious return to OKC (10-6).
Whether it was the boos or the high stakes, Westbrook turned it up a notch in the fourth quarter. He still took some inadvisable 3-point shots, but he also made three 3-pointers and scored 13 points.
With 17 seconds left on the clock, Westbrook bent over in the Thunder huddle. His team trailed by four points. These were the types of games that he had vowed earlier in the year to make sure his team finished.
On the inbound play, Westbrook fought to get free and then drove three quarters the length of the court. But as he neared the basket — the Kings fans so far on the edge of their seats they forgot they were supposed to be booing — he kicked the ball out to Dennis Schroder on the perimeter. Schroder’s 3-point shot bounced off the rim, and Westbrook swatted it out toward the perimeter, hoping for the best.
Then the free throw marathon began.
Paul George cut the Kings’ lead to two points on an assist from Westbrook, but Sacramento’s D’Aaron Fox sunk a free throw to put the score at 117-113.
The Thunder got just one more shot off in the game, but Schroder’s shot from beyond the arc missed again.
The Kings fans were mad at Westbrook for a tussle in the third quarter.
Westbrook was slow to get back on defense. He was busy arguing a no-call with an official, and he broke late to defend Willie Cauley-Stein as the Kings center drove to the basket. Westbrook fouled him from behind, and Cauley-Stein responded by pushing back with a forearm. Westbrook, already frustrated, got in Cauley-Stein’s face, and the two jostled back and forth. Thunder center Steven Adams was quick to step in between the pair, backing Cauley-Stein away from his point guard.
The whole tussle morphed into a mass of blue jerseys before the situation finally diffused. After a replay, Adams and Cauley-Stein were charged with double technical fouls. Westbrook was only called for the original foul.
But overall, it had been a positive third quarter for the Thunder. OKC outscored the Kings 29-15 and grabbed a brief lead for the first time in the game.
It was a needed boost after a sloppy first half. The Thunder only trailed by 13 points heading into halftime, but the way they were playing, with nine turnovers in the half and Westbrook and Paul George shooting a combined 8-of-23 from the floor, it felt like more.