Russell Westbrook gave up some control and trusted his teammates on Friday night. It led to the Thunder winning their first game of the series and ANOTHER triple-double for the Big 0 in the 2017 NBA playoffs.
The Thunder started off strong, going on an 11-2 run in the opening minutes of the game. The crowd immediately into it.
Taj Gibson specifically had a fantastic first quarter defending Ryan Anderson and James Harden. His spacing, brought by his 18-foot mid-range jumper was truly important for the Thunder. He scored 1 less point in the first 10 minutes than he did in the first 2 games combined. Russell Westbrook also did a good job of laying back, letting his teammates take their shots. And hey, what do you know, they can actually play basketball.
The 2nd quarter gave more of the same. The Thunder’s bench was actually put into positions to do what they do best. Enes Kanter got a few post ups, Alex Abrines came off screens at the 3pt arc and Victor Oladipo drove the offense for a while.
Lou Williams attempted to keep the Rockets in it, scoring 16 points in his first 10 minutes in the game but the gap was not closed significantly until Harden came into the game. Scoring 20 points on 9 shots in the first half, his relentless attacking of the basket kept the Rockets in the game, down only 7.
James Harden started the second half as hot as he was in the first half scoring 6 straight himself. The Rockets scored 9 straight points to take their first lead of the game despite the Thunder shooting 59.6% from the field at that point. Succeeding, Westbrook returned and a 10 point lead again grew behind some unbelievable shooting from the Thunder, 8/14 after 3 quarters of basketball.
The Rockets bench trimmed the lead but this time just to 6 before Westbrook was reinstituted. At that point, the Rockets slowly chipped away at the lead until Harden had a chance at the end to win the game, down only 2 with 8 seconds remaining. He went for the winning 3pt attempt and it went just left.
Rockets can not be too upset about this loss. The Thunder played about as good as they can, shooting 55% from the field and hitting 9 three-pointers. Getting solid contributions from players even like Kanter who has been borderline unplayable. The Rockets just have to keep doing what they are doing.
James Harden is playing some of the best basketball of his career right now and Westbrook made a nice adjustment for what has been an already historic season. The next few games should be a lot of fun.
