Kiwi Steve in the NBA Playoffs: First Round vs Utah Jazz, Game 5
BOX SCORE
vs UTAH JAZZ (W 107-99):
39 MINS | 6 PTS (2/6 FG, 2/2 FT) | 6 REB | 1 AST | 2 STL | 1 PF
NEXT WEEK
GAME SIX at UTAH JAZZ, Saturday at 2.30pm (NZT)
GAME SEVEN vs UTAH JAZZ (if necessary), Monday at TBD (NZT)
GAME FIVE
The good news was that the Thunder were back at home after getting pumped in a couple road games. The bad news was that they now needed to win three straight, including one back in Swat Lake City (as Rudy Gobert calls it), if they’re going to advance. The other good news was that at least they had some emotional and moustachioed support…
The other bad news was that Enes Kanter was only in town to watch, rather than to supply another quality rebounder to his old team… against his other old team.
Through four games there wasn’t much to get OKC hopes up, it seemed like they were getting outplayed man to a man, with the exception maybe of Paul George and that’s it. PG was averaging 27.3 pts with 42.5% from 3pt, nothing wrong with that. But Westbrook shooting at 36.7% was a worry. Anthony shooting at 37.3% and 23.1% from 26 deep attempts was also a worry. Adams averaging 9.5 pts & 5.8 reb against Gobert’s 15.3 & 11.0 doesn’t exactly help either.
Here’s ESPN basketball mastermind Zach Lowe going in on how Rudy Gobert has annihilated the inside options for OKC, in turn ruining Russell Westbrook and in turn in turn removing Steven Adams from offensive consideration…
“When Westbrook has challenged Gobert, it generally has gone poorly for him. For the first time in Game 4, you could see Westbrook become a little unnerved. On a couple of plays, he turned the corner with Adams flanking him, gathered the ball to do something, and suddenly realized he had no good options. Gobert is the very best in the league at covering two players at once. What is Westbrook supposed to do here?
Against a lot of teams, Westbrook takes this to the rack, or hits Adams with a lob. On Monday, he jumped, discovered he couldn't do either, nearly went up and down, and shot-putted a stomach pass to Anthony. (He has fooled Gobert a few times by slowing down as if he were going to launch a floater, drawing Gobert out just a bit, and lobbing to Adams.)”
To the biggest game of the season now and your one guarantee was that Russell Westbrook was never going to surrender, never going to go away from the strategy that got him here. Again he had his fingerprints on everything the OKC offence did, throwing one all the way up for Adams to thump down for example, and initially things looked solid. Russ missed some jumpers but things looked solid. Paul George missed a few as well which isn’t so great but Adams was working hard on defence for a couple steals.
But Utah had a plan. The Thunder were throwing heat at the Jazz pick and roll, only the Jazz were slickly responding by moving the ball around and into the corners where their shooters were open. Six different Utah players had assists in the first quarter and Jae Crowder and Joe Ingles, the two go-to three point shooters, were a combined 7/9 from deep in the frame. Ingles even sent Paul George sprawling while Crowder at one point scored or assisted on 21 straight UTA points. PG13 sunk a triple right on the buzzer to give the crowd something to cheer about, down 34-29 after 1Q.
Billy Donovan went smaller with his second unit which he’s kinda forced to do anytime Adams sits. The Jazz finally missed a few long ones, as was bound to happen eventually, however the Thunder responded to that with isolation plays and turnovers into the crowd. Lads, Enes Kanter ain’t walking through that door… well, actually he did but he wasn’t allowed on the court. Same deal. Alex Abrines on the other hand, he got some good minutes in that second quarter even after the usuals had come back in. The Spaniard is one of the few OKC players with a positive net rating this series. Josh Huestis was also getting time… Melo’s time, which was a relief.
Again that Rudy Gobert factor was making rim scoring almost impossible and it doesn’t help when Westbrook’s missing his hard-earned layups. Adams got a post-up play on him but was driven far enough away from the rim that his shot fell short. They could still get off those Russ jump shots around those Steve screens but getting to them and making them are different stories.
Utah passed the ball too smoothly to deal with, an 11-2 run finally putting some life into a grinding second quarter while simultaneously quietening the crowd as the Jazz went up by 15. A couple more handles for Adams but he was bumped by Gobert and missed one before getting blocked from behind by Donovan Mitchell, presumably playing on stilts to reach him. Half-time came and it was 56-41 to the Jazz, who had 12 assists in the half compared to OKC’s 5 assists and 6 turnovers. Also the Thunder only scored 12 points in the second quarter. Looking like those basketball camps in Rotorua might be starting a little earlier than expected.
A good idea would be to come out fired up, make some field goals and chase the Jazz off the three point line and away from the offensive boards. A bad idea would be to let Utah start things up again on an 8-1 run. Guess which one they did?
Steven Adams and Carmelo Anthony made some free throws to bring it back and that came with a big boost as Rudy Gobert took his fourth foul and sat down. Except Jae Crowder made a couple threes because apparently he cannot miss and the lead was up to 25 points. Twenty-five points. In a must-win game with their season on the line and they’re TWENTY-FIVE points down. In the third-quarter, no less.
OKC always had a run in them though. Without Gobert in there, Westbrook was immediately unleashed. He got started with a couple triples then started blitzing to the rim for buckets that never existed for him with the Frenchman out there. Adams picked up an assist on a hand-off and was able to throw himself around for those rebounds too. They looked like the Thunder that we got to know down the stretch of the regular season. Gobert came back in as OKC polished off a 14-2 run, then gave up an offensive foul and sat back down. Westbrook got his 14th point of the quarter at the free throw line and it was only an eight-point difference. George added a lovely left-hander at the rim and it was six. Utah timeout.
The defence was absolutely buzzing and the game was moving at a ferocious pace, Utah were rattled and Oklahoma City were all over them. Donovan Mitchell threw down a mean dunk to shut the crowd up for a second but then Westbrook hit back to back triples and the game was tied at 78-78 going into the final twelve minutes. Just to recap, that was a 32-7 run across 8:34 and Westbrook scored 20 in the frame. THERE IS LIFE!
No sooner had the fourth quarter begun than Steven Adams and Jae Crowder were bumping bodies down under and words were exchanged. Remember Crowder was ejected in game four for a stray elbow on Adams. Double technical was the call. One of those rare moments when Stevie got a little heated… must be Playoff Steve taking over.
With the team on a roll (and the season on the brink), Westbrook, George and Adams all played the entire third quarter. Adams finally sat with 9:33 left in the 4Q and got barely a couple minutes rest until Gobert came back in out of a timeout and Adams followed him up. Gobert rose highest to give Utah the lead back at 91-90 but then Westbrook and Abrines made triples and Chesapeake Arena was ready to melt to the ground.
No rest, no worries. This was Russell Westbrook’s game. Utah couldn’t make a thing happen without Russ hitting back in response, particularly clinical slipping off those Steven Adams screens. Paul George chipped in as his able deputy and OKC had found a two-man solution. Between that pair, they scored 79 points compared to 28 for the rest of the team. The Thunder ran it out for a 107-99 win to cap the tied-fourth biggest playoff comeback in the last two decades of the NBA. Why not?
Westbrook’s final line: 43 MINS | 45 PTS (17/39 FG, 5/9 3PT, 6/6 FT) | 15 REB | 7 AST
Paul George’s final line: 44 MINS | 34 PTS (12/26 FG, 2/6 3PT, 8/10 FT) | 8 REB | 2 AST | 2 STL
Bloody insane. Crowder had 27 points for the Jazz with six triples while Mitchell scored 23 and Ingles had 16. Rubio had 12 rebounds and 7 assists but only scored 10 points on 4/14 shooting. We’re going back to Salt Lake City, mate.
The Oklahoman: “Quiet contributions from Abrines and Steven Adams helped keep the Thunder in command – the Jazz never led by more than a point in the fourth quarter – but as the Thunder dug out of an in-game grave, Westbrook and George did the hard climbing. It was an unexpected twist in this continuing series. But it was just the story the Thunder had plotted in the summer.”
SLAM DUNKS
Enes Kanter to The Oklahoman: “I learned a lot, especially watching the Thunder-Jazz series. I watch it because I've been with this team a long time, and I think just because of playoff experiences it's really important. Now, I'm just in front of the TV watching, watching Steven (Adams), watching all the big guys. I think it teaches me a lot … about offense, defense, especially defensively I watch Steven a lot. It's just taught me a lot of things of what Steven is doing. It helps me a lot during the season.”
Whack an ad like Russell Westbrook just whacked the Utah Jazz and The Niche Cache will achieve global domination by the end of the week, probably