On a night that Russell Westbrook will remember forever, the Thunder stole the show. Before the ball went in the air, everyone in the building was a Russ fan. The atmosphere in the building mirrored game 4 of the 2016 Western Conference Finals after the Thunder went up 3-1. The Thunder showed Russ how much he meant to the fans, franchise, and city with a great video tribute and he received an extremely loud and long standing ovation once his name was called while announcing the starters.
Once the game tipped off, the Thunder quickly ended any hype Russ and the Rockets had for the game.
The Rockets were playing their 2nd of a back to back and it showed. They came out with no energy on either end of the floor and the Thunder took advantage. They used a season high 37 points in the first quarter to build a 16 point lead and didn’t look back from there.
They held the Rockets to a season low 92 points in the game and held Harden, who is averaging 38 ppg and coming off of a 40 point triple double, under 20 at 17 points on 5-17. Russ was the only Rocket to show any type of energy and he ended up with 34 points on 14-26 with 5 assist. Only one other guy scored in double digits for the Rockets and that was Chris Clemons who had 14 with the majority coming in garbage time.
For the Thunder, 5 guys scored 15 or more lead by Gallinari who had 23 points and 11 rebounds. The others were starters Shai Gilgeous-Alexander with 20 points, Chris Paul with 18 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 assists, Steven Adams with 15 points and 8 rebounds, and Dennis Schroeder added 16 points and 5 rebounds off the bench.
This was the first of 5 of the next 6 being at home and the team got off to a great start. They will host the Lakers next on Saturday night at 7pm.
Flip the page to see the Russ video tribute and highlight from the game.