Author: John Paulsen (Page 32 of 937)

I’ve been hard on Russell Westbrook over the past several games (as has most of the national media), but let’s give the guy credit. His brand of shoot-first point guard play was good enough to get Oklahoma City a 133-123 triple-overtime, series-tying win on Monday night.

In the last five minutes of regulation and the three overtime periods, Westbrook went 6-for-11 from the field with two assists and one turnover, and went 3-for-3 from the free throw line. He wasn’t perfect, but no one is expecting him to be. This is solid production from a player who has struggled mightily down the stretch in this series. In addition to the 40 points, he had five rebounds, five assists, three steals, two blocks and three turnovers.

It doesn’t hurt that he has Kevin Durant on his team either. Durant posted 35 points, 13 rebounds and four steals in the win, and scored 13 points in the final 20 minutes of the game.

What’s worrisome for the Thunder is that they had a 10-point lead with 5:11 to play and went into overtime. Then they had a seven-point with 1:54 to play in the first overtime, and blew that too. It wasn’t until the third overtime (and after a series of blown bunnies by the Grizzlies), that OKC was finally able to close out the game.

Speaking of blown bunnies, what happened to Zach Randolph’s touch around the basket? He scored 34 points, but was only 9-of-25 from the field and missed a series of close shots down the stretch.