Russell Westbrook and the OKC Thunder staved off playoff elimination with a 107-99 victory in Game 5 Wednesday night, engineering a remarkable 25-point comeback against the Utah Jazz.
Westbrook scored 33 of his 45 points in the second half, and finished with 15 rebounds and seven assists.
Paul George added 34 points and eight rebounds for the Thunder, who forced a Game 6 back in Salt Lake City on Friday.
Per the AP:
“It was win or go home,” Westbrook said. “Regardless of what is going on in the game, you have to give yourself a chance to win, and I thought our guys did a good job of that tonight. They did an amazing job of sticking together.”
Utah opened the second half on an 8-1 run to go up 64-42, and [Jae] Crowder’s 3-pointer made it 71-46 with 8:34 left in the third quarter.
“We just never quit,” George said. “We never quit. I can’t pinpoint one thing we did wrong. We just never got down on ourselves, regardless of the lead they built and the shots they were making. We could surge back and we did.”
