Written by J.A. Sherman at Welcome to Loud City.com
The Oklahoma City Thunder defeated the San Antonio Spurs in game 5, 95-91. Behind the 4th quarter energy of Russell Westbrook and once again a stout defensive performance by OKC, the Thunder have won their second consecutive game in San Antonio, a place where the Spurs had lost only once the entire regular season. As a result, the Thunder now take a 3-2 series lead back home to OKC with a chance to close out the series in game 6.
If the ending to game 4 was a return to the Thunder’s own version of ‘beautiful basketball’ – i.e. Kevin Durant scoring binges – then game 5 was the Russell Westbrook experience once again. If game 3 was the dark side of the moon for Westbrook, game 5 was a bit of brain damage. After a sloppy first half where Westbrook committed 6 turnovers, it appeared that those mistakes caught up to the Thunder in the 3rd quarter when they fell behind by 13 midway through. Without Durant’s shooting this time out, the Thunder had to rely on Westbrook to create offense. Just like he did in game 4, Westbrook switched into playmaker mode and had 3 assists and 6 points in the quarter to keep OKC within striking distance.
Recovered but still trailing by 3 entering the 4th, Westbrook led the way again, finishing the quarter with 10 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists, which included a shot clock-beating bomb.
Even with Westbrook’s effort, the Thunder still found themselves down 6 with 4 minutes remaining. Westbrook again answered the bell by knocking down a deep 2-pointer, raced full court for a lay-up after everyone stopped play following what could have been a Spurs shot clock violation, and then lastly grabbed an offensive rebound after his own miss to feed Enes Kanter for the lay in, tying things up again.
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