Los Angeles: Russell Westbrook produced yet another triple-double as the Oklahoma City Thunder held on for a crucial 115-113 victory over the Houston Rockets in the NBA playoffs on Friday.
With the win on their home court, the Thunder avoided falling back 0-3 in their best-of-seven Western Conference first-round series, narrowing the deficit to 2-1.
Eastern Conference top seeds, the Boston Celtics, also clawed back from a 0-2 deficit, beating the Bulls in Chicago 104-87 after dropping the first two games of their series at home.
“That was our only goal for this game, was [to] just get the win no matter what for us to have a chance to make it a series,” the Celtics’ Jae Crowder said.
“You go down 0-3 and it’s really, really tough for you to fight back, but we just wanted to take it one game at a time and get this game and give ourselves a chance.”
Al Horford scored 18 points, Isaiah Thomas and Crowder added 16 each as five Boston players scored in double figures.
Dwyane Wade scored 18 points and Jimmy Butler chipped in 14 for Chicago, but the Bulls offence looked stagnant without point guard Rajon Rondo, who is sidelined indefinitely with a broken thumb.
Butler connected on just seven of his 21 shots from the floor and didn’t get to the free throw line.
The Bulls didn’t have a single assist in the third quarter as they struggled to get their offence going.
“We’re not going to put this all on us missing Rondo because, if that’s the case, we might as well not show up anymore because it looks like we’re going to be missing him for awhile,” Wade said. “We have to figure out a way to be better.”
In Oklahoma City, Westbrook became the first player to notch back-to-back triple-doubles in the same playoff series since Jason Kidd in the 2002 Eastern Conference finals.
But even his 32 points, 11 assists and 13 rebounds were barely enough against the Rockets, who had a chance to win at the buzzer only for James Harden to miss a three-point attempt.
Westbrook’s second missed free throw in the waning seconds had kept the door open for the Rockets, who had tied it at 111-111 with 52 seconds to play on a Harden three-pointer.
Westbrook responded with his first three-point attempt of the game. It didn’t fall, but teammate Steven Adams was there for the tip-in that put the Thunder back in front.
In Salt Lake City, Los Angeles point guard Chris Paul scored 24 of his 34 points in the second half as the Clippers rallied for a 111-106 victory over the Utah Jazz.
The Clippers took a 2-1 lead in the series, despite losing Blake Griffin to a toe injury late in the second quarter.
Griffin scored 11 points and pulled down six rebounds before departing, and Clippers coach Doc Rivers said immediately after the game that the extent of Griffin’s injury was unclear.
“We should have more news tomorrow,” Rivers said.
DeAndre Jordan scored 17 points and grabbed 13 rebounds and Luc Mbah a Moute added 15 points for the Clippers, who withstood a career-high 40 points from Utah’s Gordon Hayward.
