OKLAHOMA CITY _ The Nets got the full "Russell Westbrook Experience" on Friday night at Chesapeake Energy Arena as the leading NBA MVP candidate recorded yet another triple-double with 30 points, 11 rebounds and 13 assists in just 34 minutes. The ironic part is that it was a late Thunder run with Westbrook on the bench that sent the Nets to their third straight loss, 124-105.
Westbrook sat out for 6:45 from late in the third quarter until midway through the fourth, and that's when a 17-4 Thunder run, including seven points by Enes Kanter, turned a three-point game into a 101-85 lead with 9:44 left to play. After the Nets scored the next four points, Westbrook returned with 8:14 left, and the Thunder's lead never went below nine points the rest of the way.
Westbrook got 26-point, six-assist support from Victor Oladipo. Steven Adams added 15 points and Kanter and Joffrey Lauvergne had 13 apiece off the bench.
The Nets had six double-figures scorers topped by Brook Lopez, who had 14 of his 22 in the opening period. But the Nets again were pounded on the boards, 46-30, and had no one with more than five rebounds. They also were outscored in the paint, 62-42.
For the first quarter at least, the most prolific scorer on the floor was not Westbrook but rather the Nets' reconstituted Lopez. The 7-foot center hit three 3-pointers in his career before Nets coach Kenny Atkinson asked him to work on that part of the game to stretch the floor this season. In the first quarter, the Nets made a phenomenal 8 of 10 3-point attempts, including a 4-for-5 effort by Lopez, who had 14 points to help the Nets to a 40-34 lead.
"He has embraced it beyond my expectations," Atkinson said before the game of Lopez's long-range shooting. "Usually, these things are incremental, but he's embraced it and he's comfortable there. But it's like his new toy."
Asked about the delight Lopez shows with his celebration, holding up three fingers each time he nails one, Atkinson laughed and said: "Yeah, when he's pulling up three or four feet beyond (the arc) and off the dribble, there are some that you're like, 'Oooh, let's slow down.' What I like about it is now he can drive (against) the closeout. I was shocked he could do that."
Lopez was resting early in the second quarter when the Nets' bench put together a 13-6 run behind five points from Lopez's replacement, Justin Hamilton, to take a 53-43 lead over the Thunder. That was where Westbrook drew the line.
After a layup by Oladipo, Westbrook scored the next 10 straight points in a 21-7 Thunder run that built a 64-60 lead just before the Nets drew within three at halftime. He started with back-to-back fadeaways over 6-foot Yogi Ferrell and then Lopez, neither of whom had a chance. Then Westbrook scored on a fast-break layup as he sailed backward under the rim and immediately followed with a steal and dunk before adding a pair of foul shots. It was quite a show.
The Nets trimmed their deficit to two points early in the third quarter, but Westbrook simply revved his turbo-charged engine again to score two baskets in an 8-0 burst that pushed the lead back to 76-66, adding his 10th assist at the end of that run. It was shortly after that point when Westbrook grabbed his 10th rebound to achieve a triple-double with 5:22 left in the third period.
The Nets bounced back to pull within three at 84-81 on a three-point play by Sean Kilpatrick. But that's where the Nets let go of the rope with Westbrook on the sideline.
