Westbrook again does triple duty

The Cleveland Cavaliers considered resting their stars, then played the Oklahoma City Thunder at full strength and lost anyway.

Russell Westbrook scored 29 points as part of his 26th tripledouble of the season Thursday night, leading the Thunder to a 118109 victory at Oklahoma City.

Cavaliers Coach Tyronn Lue said after Wednesday's win at Indiana that he was considering resting All-Stars LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love, but they all started.

“There was a lot of drama going on before the game,” Thunder Coach Billy Donovan said. “Who's playing? Who’s not playing. They’re in. They’re out. They may play. It looks like they’re going to play. I just really told our guys, even in shootaround this morning, it’s about what we need to do and we need to understand personnel like we do for every scout.”

Irving scored 28 points, James scored 18 and Love had 15 points and 12 rebounds.

Victor Oladipo scored 23 for the Thunder, Steven Adams had 20 points and 13 rebounds, and Westbrook added 12 rebounds and 11 assists in the 63rd triple-double of his career.

Houston 107, at Charlotte 95:

James Harden had 30 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists in leading the Rockets to their third consecutive victory. Harden, who has scored at least 30 points 25 times, made only eight of 21 shots and had nine turnovers but turned up his play down the stretch as the Rockets overcame a nine-point, thirdquarter deficit.

Boston 120, at Portland 111:

Isaiah Thomas scored 34 points to help the Celtics move to within 21⁄2 games of the conference-leading Cavaliers in the East.

at Dallas 112, Utah 105 (OT):

Harrison Barnes scored eight of his 31 points in overtime after the Mavericks rallied from a 21-point deficit. Barnes’ three-point play ended an 11-0 run that started late in regulation and gave Dallas a 107-100 lead. Utah’s Gordon Hayward has a season-high 36 points but missed a three-pointer as regulation ended.

Philadelphia 112, at Orlando 111:

T.J. McConnell made the go-ahead jumper with 5.8 seconds to play and Dario Saric scored 24 points for the 76ers. McConnell’s basket in the lane came after Ersan Ilyasova won a jump ball against Evan Fournier in the waning moments of the game.