Houston Rockets hosted the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday night in Game 5 of their first-round playoff series. Toyota Center in Houston was crowded once again as Houston fans wanted to see their team win for the fourth time in this series, and advance to the secound roud of Western Conference playoffs.
The Thunder on the other hand wanted to extend their season with a potential win on Tuesday night. Houston was without Sam Dekker again who is out due to hand injury. It was a sellout crowd of 19,000 fans in Toyota Center that included Hall of Famer Hakeem Olajuwon, rapper Travis Scott and his rumored girlfriend, reality star Kylie Jenner.
Back and forth game to the end
Oklahoma opened up the game much better on Tuesday and were off to a hot start. They were superb defensively in that first period of the game as they held Houston to just 16 points while scoring 22 themselves. It was 22-16 for the Thunder after the first quarter. Midway through the second quarter it was a tie game at 36 a piece but Houston would manage to take the lead back. They ended up the first half on a 12-3 run and led by seven points at halftime (51-44). Houston was up by 6 early in the third quarter before using a 7-2 spurt to make it 61-50 with about 7 minutes left in the quarter.
The Rockets made just 1 of 13 3-point attempts in the third quarter. Russell Westbrook had a big third quarter.
He scored 20 points in the period as Oklahoma held a 77-72 lead going into the fourth quarter. After scoring 20 points in the third quarter, Westbrook made just 2 of 11 fourth-quarter shots as Houston held on to win Game 5 105-99. Houston was 33-39 from the free-throw line and they held Oklahoma to just 38.5% shooting from the field.
OKC outrebounded the Rockets 49-47 and they had 18 offensive rebounds.
Westbrook scores 47 points in his final game of the season
Russell Westbrook led all scorers in Game 5. He finished with 47 points and also added 11 rebounds and nine assists. He was one assists shy of his fourth straight triple-double in this series but he also made just 5 of a career-high 18 3-point attempts.
Jerami Grant and Alex Abrines each scored 11 for the Thunder while Taj Gibson added 10 points and eight rebounds.
James Harden led the Rockets in scoring with 34 points but he was just 8-25 from the field. Harden added eight rebounds and four assists on the night. Lou Williams scored 22 points off the bench while Patrick Beverley finished with 15 points. Williams has scored at least 20 points in three of the last four games.
Houston advances to the second round and they will face either Memphis or San Antonio.
