Westbrook, Thunder Rally from 25 Down to Top Jazz

As OKC’s back is still against the wall, look for Westbrook to pick up from where he left off in Game 5.

Paul George added 34 points and eight rebounds as Oklahoma City cut Utah’s lead in the best-of-seven series to 3-2. But after Rudy Gobert got into foul trouble, the Thunder took over, erasing the deficit by the end of the quarter.

The NBA fined Oklahoma City Thunder star Russell Westbrook $10,000 and assessed him a technical foul for his altercation with Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert during game four on Monday. He was 17-of-39 from the floor in his 44 minutes of work. But when he’s been just good and not off-the-charts ridiculous – 26.0 points, 11.0 rebounds, 10.0 assists and 43.6 per cent shooting in losses – the Cavaliers haven’t had an answer.

Domantas Sabonis had a team-high 22 points for the Pacers, who will try to avoid elimination when they host Game 6 on Friday. During the Thunder’s run without Anthony, the Jazz shot 5-of-19 (1-of-10 from 3) with only six points in the paint.

“I don’t think you should go into games with just preconceived notions and ideas that this is what you’re going to do regardless”, Donovan added. Anthony, a player averaging 33.4 minutes per game in this series, hasn’t recorded a single assist in any of the past four games, as Jordan Greer of Sporting News revealed.

Utah went on cruise control far too early in Game 5 and paid the cost.

The bench has provided a little juice here and there, like when Mike Scott scored 20 points in Game 2, but the Wizards won’t win this series with uneven performances in Games 6 and 7 from the complementary players.

The Jazz will now start feeling the pressure to close this series out on their home court, and their collapse in game five will be fresh on their minds.

The match was also the first time in the series the Thunder had held the Jazz below 100 points, despite the visitors getting an unusually high-output performance from back up forward Jae Crowder. For the series, he is averaging 14.6 points, and has connected on 18 3-pointers at a rate of 46.2%.

“Down 25. You know, what else could we do?”

3-8 ATS in their last 11 games when their opponent allows 100 or more points in their previous game.

You can nearly mark down in pen that Washington Wizards point guard John Wall will have another big game Friday night.

The Wizards have been so much better at home than on the road, winning eight consecutive playoff games in Washington, so pushing this to a Game 7 is not out of the question.

The Jazz followed his lead, taking a commanding 56-41 lead into the halftime break.

Over the final 20:30 on Wednesday, Oklahoma City outscored the Jazz 61-28, with Westbrook and George accounting for 54 of those points on 20-of-35 shooting. George has been a barometer, playing extremely well in the Thunder’s two wins and pretty poorly in their three losses. They had a chance to empathically end the Thunder season, sending them into an offseason of uncertainty, while advancing to the second round to meet the Houston Rockets.

Head to head, the home team is 4-1 ATS in the last five meetings, the under is 15-6 in the last 21 meetings and the favorite is 4-1 ATS in the last five meetings.