Westbrook Comes Up Big To Beat Jazz
By Randy Renner, Senior Writer
Fresh off an All-Star snub Thunder point guard Russell Westbrook notched his 22nd triple-double of the season and hit the game winning shot with 1.4 seconds to play leading OKC to a thrilling 97-95 road win over the Utah Jazz.
The game also marked the return of center Steven Adams who been out for a week with a concussion and he played a key role in the win too.
The Jazz had won six straight and the Thunder had lost three of their last four and were just 2-6 on the road this month.
Westbrook finished with 38 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists. It was the 59th triple-double of his career tying him with NBA legend Larry Bird for fifth on the All-Time list.
The Thunder played well most of the night except for a terrible 3rd quarter where they scored just 11 points on 4-for-22 shooting. That performance forced them to have to come from behind inside what was then a raucous arena.
Trailing 72-67 and shooting just 40.3 percent overall after that 3rd quarter meltdown the Thunder dominated the last 12 minutes shooting 52.4 percent overall and holding Utah to just 39.1 percent. Westbrook scored 14 points in the quarter but none bigger than the two he got off a mid-range jumper as the clocked ticked down.
It looked like Westbrook had iced the game seconds before with a couple of free throws with :12.5 seconds left to give the Thunder a 95-92 lead but Gordon Hayward came down and nailed a three to tie the game with :10.5 to play.
Hayward had left way too much time on the clock and the Thunder took full advantage. During a timeout the strategy was set and it worked to perfection.
“We wanted to give him the whole length of the floor on the last play (instead of just the half court following the timeout) He was the one that said to me ‘the more space the better,’” said Thunder head coach Billy Donovan.
''Coach made the decision to bring it up the floor and that was good for us. Got the shot I wanted,” Westbrook said. ''I didn't want to take the shot too early,'' he added, ''I was open early, but kind of waited. I wanted to knock some time off the clock.”
“I give him credit that he waited a little bit,” Donovan said. “It was a great pull-up shot.”
Set up by a great screen from Adams.
“What we did is, I said ‘Steven if your man is not on you, set a flat pick-and-roll in the middle of the floor,’ Steven did and it kinda broke some space for (Westbrook.”
Adams also appreciated how Westbrook wasn’t quick on the trigger, waiting until the right moment to launch his shot.
“He did a good job of not jacking it straight away. Really tried to use up the clock make it a tougher shot for them,” he said.
Sure enough Westbrook’s shot went through the net with just :1.4 to play and Alec Burks’ 3-point heave at the buzzer missed.
“A road win is a great feeling, especially when you have an opportunity to be home for a little bit and come to a hostile place where they beat us before,” Westbrook said. “It was a big win for us.”
The Jazz had beaten the Thunder by 20 points earlier in the season when OKC was playing on the second night of a back-to-back, this time the Thunder came in without having played a game in four days.
And they were healthy again.
Adams finished with nine points and six rebounds but more importantly he played 37 minutes and made things difficult for Jazz center Rudy Gobert who’s been the talk of the league lately. Gobert ended up with 12 points and nine rebounds, both totals off his average and he failed to grab double-digit rebounds for the first time in 32 games.
The Thunder also got a big game from Victor Oladipo who finished with 18 points on 8-for-11 shooting and Enes Kanter dropped 14 points on his former team.
The Thunder move on to New Orleans now for a game with the Pelicans Wednesday night before finally getting back on the floor at The Peake Thursday evening when they host the Dallas Mavericks.