Russell Westbrook spearheads the Oklahoma City Thunder to a triple overtime win over the Memphis Grizzlies
Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant combined for 75 points to lift Oklahoma City Thunder above Memphis Grizzlies in an epic 133-123 victory that came in a rare third overtime.
With this victory in game-4 of Monday night at the FedEx Forum, the Thunder have bounced back in the Western Conference semi-finals in a tremendous fashion to tie the series 2-2 in front of a sell out crowd.
Westbrook led the pack with 40 points along with five boards, five assists, three steals and two blocks. Teammate Durant scored 35 points out of which six came in the third overtime.
Memphis opened the quarter with a brisk 8-0 blitz, before OKC notched the lead down to five (11-16) with Serge Ibaka’s jumper in 4:46. However, Marc Gasol and company used a 12-5 surge that iced the Thunder, as the Grizzlies sealed the quarter 28-16. Gasol punched 12 points for the Grizzlies in the first quarter.
The hard-nosed Grizzlies carried on from where they left and stretched the lead to 18 (19-37) with 8:21 to go. The Thunder attack which showed no spark until the first 16 minutes of the game, came tearing out of their sleeping suits and slashed the deficit down to nine (38-47) with a 19-10 charge. Daequan Cook led the rally with two smashing 3s and one floater.
Then, Oklahoma City’s defence gave away just six more points to the Grizzlies in the last 3 minutes and their aggressors kept on reducing the lead from the other end. As a result, they ended up just four points behind the Grizzlies (49-53) when the first half closed.
Both teams looked to dominate each another right from the tip of the second half as the ball swung widely from one end to the other. The desperate Thunder launched several assaults in order to guide the Grizzlies, but Memphis thrashed their super efforts in the ensuing passage and secured another quarter in their favour (71-72).
However, the Grizzlies failed to frustrate the Thunder, as they came back hard on them in the final quarter. As OKC outscored Memphis with a 19-8 run that pushed the score to a 90-80 advantage, Nazr Mohammed led the charge with seven points.
The Thunder were well on their way to win the game, but the Grizzlies made a late surge that closed the gap to just three. At that stage, a nervous Kendrick Perkins missed two key free throws and then Westbrook’s jumper was blocked by Gasol. He rebounded it to Conley, who hit a shocker from the three-point range which tied the scores and pushed the game into extra time.
The Thunder led the Grizzlies 107-101 until 1:30 left in the overtime, when Memphis made another remarkable comeback and knotted the scores 109-109 with Greivis Vasquez’s 26-footer on Shane Battier’s assist to move into second overtime.
In the second OT, both teams did not let each other get away too far as they fought hard to go in front. Both tallied 10 points apiece and missed numerous chances that pushed the game into the third overtime.
After missing out on a number of occasions, the Thunder finally got themselves together and did not give the Grizzlies even a single sniff to climb back again as they outscored them 14-4 sprint to register a momentous win.
Gasol led the Memphis with his astonishing 26 points and 21 rebounds while Zach Randolph made team-high 34 points.
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