Thunder lose Game Five in Houston, end a fun season
By Tony Heim
The OKC Thunder season is over. Dang..
First off, congratulations to the Houston Rockets. You have an incredibly explosive and any team should be afraid of you. Good luck in the next round.
Houston won Game Five 105-99, ending the most anticipated first round matchup going into the postseason. Russell Westbrook dropped his per usual 47 point, 11 rebound and 9 assist stat line, but – of course – was not given much help from his teammates.
The Thunder once again ended the first quarter with a lead, but a 35-point eruption in the second quarter found Oklahoma City down seven at the half. Lou Williams scored 10 points to go along with James Harden’s 11; Westbrook’s 18 was the only player above 6 points for the Thunder. OKC shot 38.1% from the field in the first half and 5-19 from three, ending the half with 44 points. That’s simply not enough against Houston.
Besides an incredible stretch in the third quarter from Westbrook, Houston handled the second half too. Russ scored 20 points, hitting 6-9 from the field and 4-7 from deep. All six of his made field goals came from 5:40 to 1:53; two additional assists helped give Oklahoma City a five point lead going into the fourth quarter.
The man was incredible.
But as the fourth quarter started, Westbrook sat. The defense interestingly collapsed even with Andre Roberson on the floor – the offense naturally collapsed without Russ. Westbrook entered the game with a five point deficit, even though he was out for less than three minutes. All that effort at the end of the third quarter was useless.
Try as Westbrook might, nothing would fall for him. He ended the night 15-34 from the field but only 5-18 from deep. The sad part is even the three-point percentage was better than his counterparts.
Non-Westbrook players shot 35% from the field tonight, a truly awful number for many reasons. They hit 5-20 from deep. In the fourth quarter they went 5-15 and 0-10 from deep.
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It truly was Westbrook against the Rockets.
Victor Oladipo was a shell of the player we saw show huge growth at the end of the season, going 4-17 from the field while recording a crucial turnover on a terrible pass in the closing possessions. At one point the camera panned to him and he truly looked afraid of the moment. It makes sense, because that’s how he played.
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Andre Roberson didn’t help his cause (thankfully) for a big pay day this offseason as he went 1-4 from the free throw line down the stretch when Houston resorted to Hack-a-Dre. He did, however, go to work on the defensive end. Four steals, three blocks and Harden went 8-25 from the line. What he gets paid this offseason in restricted free agency will be interesting.
It’s over. And tonight was the perfect way to end it. Oklahoma City was nothing without Westbrook tonight, just like they were the whole season. Sure, some guys made plays, but most of those plays Westbrook helped facilitate in some way.
A lot has to change for this team. Now is not the time to talk about that. Over the next few weeks and months there will be plenty of time to develop the prospects, make trades and hopefully sign free agents. Trust me, the TI staff has a whole bunch to say.