Oklahoma City guard Russell Westbrook came up with a staggering performance on Tuesday night, inspiring the Thunder to a 105-92 home win over the San Antonio Spurs to tie the Western Conference Finals at 2-2.
Spurs led the opening minutes of the game, but when Westbrook took over late in the first quarter, the Thunder never trailed again and went on to seal their ninth-straight home win against San Antonio.
Westbrook’s all-round performance paid off with a game-high 40 points, 10 assists, 5 steals and 6 rebounds, while league MVP Kevin Durant added 31 for the Thunder.
“Coming up with a win was the most important thing. We have to keep the same mindset (for Game 5),” said Westbrook.
“The thing I love about our group is we have always been a bounce-back-ability team,” Thunder coach Scott Brooks said in the postgame press conference.
“Russell was all over the floor. He has energy to supply the whole room. That’s how he plays,” Brooks said of Westbrook.
Serge Ibaka, the Congo-born Spaniard who miraculously recovered from a left-calf strain after being ruled out of the Finals, maintained his intimidating presence in the Thunder paint area with three blocks, disrupting the Spurs offence game plan on a number of occasions to finish with nine points and eight rebounds in 35 minutes.
For San Antonio, Tony Parker and Boris Diaw had 14 points apiece, followed by Kawhi Leonard with 10 and Tim Duncan who contributed nine points.
Oklahoma City led by as many as 27 points in the third quarter, and although the Spurs bench trimmed the deficit to 12 early in the fourth, the Thunder never went down, and Spurs starters Parker, Leonard, Duncan, Splitter and Green could only combine for their lowest contribution of 29 points in the series.
Green was the only Spurs starter who returned to the floor in the final quarter, although he could not alter the Thunder momentum.
San Antonio will host Game 5 on Thursday.
