BOX SCORES

at UTAH JAZZ (L 96-91):

39 MINS| 19 PTS (9/11 FG, 1/1 FT) | 16 REB | 3 AST | 1 STL | 1 BLK | 1 TO | 3 PF

EXIT INTERVIEW

GAME SIX

Seasons can come to an end in a variety of manners. Some whimper out slowly with a sad inevitability while others come to a crashing halt in an explosion of noise and flames. Almost all of them end in disappointment, that’s just what we put ourselves through as sports fans.

Make your own mind up as to where this Thunder season sits on the scale. There was an inevitability to game six back in Utah, even after OKC dragged it back with an all-time comeback and an all-time Russell Westbrook performance in Oklahoma for the fifth. Russ had plenty more of that in the tank… but there wasn’t enough else around him to stave off elimination. Not exactly what Sam Presti had in mind when he formed the OK3 last year.

First shot of the game and Carmelo Anthony missed a pull-up from 21 feet. Rudy Gobert rebounded it and Donovan Mitchell drilled a triple. Then Paul George missed from 19 feet. A tale of things to come as neither Melo nor PG were able to affect this game in the right way. Melo made a couple shots but couldn’t stay on the court. George stayed on the court and defended his arse off but was just atrocious going the other way. But like a Hollywood rom-com where it turns out the true romance was there all along hiding in plain sight, Russell Westbrook still had one mate he could rely on…

Adams played easily his best game of the series. He’d struggled to rebound the whole way but he had five in the first quarter here, as well as sinking a couple shots. Big stuff from him and when he dished one to Jerami Grant for a treble it capped a 12-0 run for OKC that had them up by nine with three minutes left in the quarter.

Not a game where either team was at their best in terms of scoring, though at least Utah had an excuse. Ricky Rubio had pulled up sore in the first quarter and ended up being subbed out early having barely played seven minutes. He wouldn’t return and the Jazz clearly missed his vision and control. Carmelo Anthony also got subbed out early, with Billy Donovan looking to mix up the rotations and get the best out of his matchups, and he ended up playing fewer minutes than Jerami Grant and fair play too with Grant knocking down a few shots.

Without Rubio, Alec Burks stepped it up. That’s the way with a great team, the next man up always does the trick and Burks had played fewer than three minutes in the entire series before he came out and scored six straight points to get his team back in front.

Wait but then this happened…

OKC were soon back up by nine and looking sharp as the Jazz shot bugger all from the field. Yet as seems to have kept happening this series, especially in the away games, they couldn’t quite close the half out. With Joe Ingles and Jae Crowder bringing the three-point barrage again, the Jazz closed the 2Q on a 13-4 run and tied it all up going into HT thanks to a Mitchell finish on the drive right at the end. A few missed free throws near the end there haunting OKC, although they can’t really complain there as Utah shot 12/23 from the line for the game. OKC were 7/13. Both teams feeling that closeout game heat at the stripe.

This was still anyone’s game while the oranges were being passed around. It was very quickly Donovan Mitchell’s game once it resumed. That dude, the rookie sensation, he’s simply ridiculous. Guys with his experience aren’t supposed to be able to do this stuff but he came outta the sheds and went bang for 10 points in two and a half minutes. It wasn’t just what he did as well, it’s how he did it. Popping in threes like they were layups and flicking in layups like he was an Olympic gymnast. Mitchell ended up scoring 22 points in the frame and only Russell Westbrook seemed capable of matching him. Russ scored 19 himself in the third, with Paul George attempting only two shots in the 3Q, one of those a heave at the buzzer.

What’s going on with that? At a guess he was gun-shy. PG was struggling big time missing shots and turning the ball over and it left him passive, while Westbrook did what Westbrook does and tried to do it all himself. Everyone knows he can go solo to enraging levels but then Paul George didn’t want to shoot and Carmelo Anthony couldn’t stay on the floor. The two guys signed to bring him the help he needed and they were absentees when it mattered most. Melo got into an argument with a coach while he was being kept out of the fourth quarter but it’s hard to argue with that shelving when he’s a team-worst -19 in his 26 minutes.

And just like that the season was slipping away. A couple Gobert free throws made it a 13-point lead with a tad over seven minutes left. Donovan Mitchell had picked up his fifth foul already but he came back in and stuck with it. Russell Westbrook played the entire second half and Paul George only missed about a minute. Hey, they came back from worse last time. Why not?

Across the next five and a half minutes, the Thunder went on an 18-7 run. Rusty scored eight of those points while Ray Felton and Jerami Grant also hit triples and Steven Adams whipped in a couple more baskets to take his total all the way up to 19 points on 9/11 shooting. Can’t argue with those numbers, especially not while he’s grabbing eight offensive boards at the same time – four of them in the fourth quarter. Season on the line and he produced his best stuff. Would’ve been nice if it’d happened earlier but so it goes. Russ knows who his real friends are.

That all had Utah up 92-91 with 88 seconds left. No Melo out there, by the way, it was a funky lineup up of Westbrook/Felton/George/Grant/Adams that got them back in the contest right at the last possible opportunity to take this thing to a final winner-takes-all game seven. Adams rushed out on Mitchell and forced him to give it up to Derrick Favors… but Derrick hit a long two to stretch it out. Westbrook missed on the next but Adams saved it for George to miss another one only Westbrook saved it… and missed.

Basically you can’t say OKC didn’t have their chances. Six offensive rebounds in the last minute only to shoot 0/7. Paul George argued that he was fouled near the end but the game played on as his shot fell short (the NBA’s ref office later said that George had initiated contact hence they upheld the decision), with the Thunder wasting too much time before getting a foul in to stop the clock. Mitchell made some free throws and without a timeout left this sucker was all over. As was the entire 2017-18 campaign for the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Might be the end of a brief era, we’ll have to wait and see.

Westbrook ended up with 46 points but he shot 18/43 to get there. He was 7/19 from deep. Not the prettiest shooting percentages and he’s copped plenty for his volume of shooting… but what are you gonna do when Paul George is going 2/16? Yeah, two of sixteen. In a playoff game. He scored 5 points with 6 turnovers. Carmelo Anthony scored 7 points on 3/7 shooting. Corey Brewer scored 2 points. Felton scored 3. Grant scored 9. Patrick Patterson barely played a minute. Alex Abrines and Josh Huestis were scoreless.

The only real help he got was from Steven Adams with his 19 points, 16 rebounds and 3 assists.

Daily Thunder: “Big Kiwi had his best night of the series in a losing effort. 19 points, 15 rebounds (7 offensive), 9-of-11 shooting and a +4 in 39 minutes. He got the best of Gobert, yet it matters not with the season-ending loss. He brought it though.”

CBS Sports: “Adams came alive for what turned out to be the finale of the series, posting his best scoring and rebounding totals of the six games. The fifth-year big man had scored in double digits in only one game prior, and Friday also marked the first time he'd taken double-digit shot attempts.”

On the other hand Donovan Mitchell scored 28 points on 14/26 shooting with fie triples. Favors scored 13 points, Ingles and Crowder both scored 12. Alec Burks had 11 off the bench. Gotta wait and see how they go in the Conference Semis against the Houston Rockets, they’re certainly not favourites there, but they were too good for OKC over six games. Too quick, too slick, too many tricks.

A few series stats…

• Russell Westbrook: 29.2 PTS | 39.8 FG% | 35.7 3P% | 12.0 REB | 7.5 AST
• Ricky Rubio: 14.0 PTS | 35.3 FG% | 31.3 3P% | 7.3 REB | 7.0 AST
• Paul George: 24.7 PTS | 40.8 FG% | 36.5 3P% | 6.0 REB | 2.7 AST
• Donovan Mitchell: 28.5 PTS | 46.2 FG% | 36.4 3P% | 7.2 REB | 2.7 AST
• Steven Adams: 10.5 PTS | 58.7 FG% | 7.5 REB | 1.5 AST
• Rudy Gobert: 14.0 PTS | 61.2 FG% | 11.2 REB | 2.0 BLK

In around 200 minutes on the floor across six games, lineups including Steven Adams outscored the Jazz by around 18 points per 100 possessions. Corey Brewer was the only other OKC starter with a positive net rating there and Alex Abrines did the same off the bench.

SLAM DUNKS

Whack an ad so that TNC doesn’t go the way of the OK3, cheers for that