Westbrook heats up, powers eighth straight Thunder win
Big second half helps Oklahoma City thwart 76ers
OKLAHOMA CITY — The Thunder and Philadelphia 76ers aren’t even in the same conference, yet they played as though they were longtime rivals.
Russell Westbrook scored 37 points, Paul George added 31, and Oklahoma City beat Philadelphia 122-112 on Sunday for its eighth straight victory.
The game was more intense than usual from the start, with a lot of extra trash talking and bumping. The teams combined for 51 fouls and 61 free throws. It carried over from Oklahoma City’s triple-overtime victory in Philadelphia in December.
“Leading into this game, after a little talk after game one, I think to this game, I kind of was looking forward to it,” Westbrook said.
Westbrook made just 6 of 20 shots in the first half, when he was knocked to the floor trying to take a charge as Joel Embiid threw down a dunk over him. He was 8 of 13 in the second half and also had 14 assists and nine rebounds.
George shot 9 of 17 a day after being named the All-star replacement for New Orleans’ Demarcus Cousins. The Thunder are 7-0 when George scores at least 30 points and 11-4 when he scores at least 25.
Steven Adams added 20 points and 13 rebounds for the Thunder. He made 10 of 11 shots and grabbed 10 offensive rebounds.
Embiid had 27 points and 10 rebounds, and Ben Simmons added 22 points for Philadelphia.
At Cleveland, Lebron James had 25 points, 14 assists and eight rebounds for Cleveland, which won a second straight game for the first time since mid-december and handed Detroit its eighth loss in a row.
At
Cavaliers 121, Pistons 104 — Spurs 113, Kings 98 —
San Antonio, Bryn Forbes scored a season-high 23 points for San Antonio. Sacramento coach Dave Joerger left two minutes into the game after feeling lightheaded. Assistant Elston Turner said Joerger is “OK.”
At Houston, James Harden had 27 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists for Houston in its 14th win in its past 16 meetings with Phoenix. Devin Booker had 31 points and 10 assists for the Suns.
At New Orleans, Blake Griffin hit a key 3-pointer with 43 sec-
Rockets 113, Suns 102 — Clippers 112, Pelicans 103 —
onds left and totaled 27 points and 12 rebounds for Los Angeles, which dealt New Orleans its second loss in nine games.
At Toronto, Fred Vanvleet scored a career-high 25 points for Toronto, which snapped
Los Angeles’ win streak at four games while beating the Lakers for the seventh straight time.
At Chicago, Giannis Antetokounmpo had 27 points, nine rebounds and eight assists for Milwaukee, which improved to 3-0 under interim coach Joe Prunty.
Raptors 123, Lakers 111 — Bucks 110, Bulls 96 —