The Oklahoma City Thunder look to tie the series in Houston on Wednesday at 8 PM ET before heading home to OKC to host the Rockets for games 3 and 4.
But with the Rockets and Thunder facing off the first round of the NBA Western Conference playoffs on Sunday, Westbrook made it clear that his friendship with Harden will be non-existent on the court.
In their last five games, Thunder has won three.
Thunder guard Russell Westbrook, a co-favorite alongside Harden for MVP honors, tallied 22 points, 11 rebounds, seven assists and nine turnovers.
Both Westbrook and James were supporters of a Kevin Durant's led OKC in 2012 in which it entered into the National Basketball Association finals, losing to the Miami Heat. Because of the combination of Durant and Russell Westbrook, the Thunder rallied to prevail in each of those series. Westbrook leads in four major statistical categories: points (31.6), rebounds (10.7), assists (10.4) and steals (1.6) per game.
As good as Harden was yesterday he also got plenty of help from a strong supporting cast.
Beverley scored a playoff career-high 21 points and added 10 rebounds, steering the ship until Harden got untracked. Westbrook has to do most of the work for OKC, which he has proven he can do, but sometimes he is forced to press and that leads to road struggles. Houston coasted to victory despite missing 23 of 33 3-point attempts.
"When you are dealing with a team like that it is pick your poison", said Thunder coach Billy Donovan. But if the rest of the series plays out in anyway like it did game one, then this will not be close at all. They text and talk often during the season. Harden finished with 37 points, seven rebounds and nine assists.
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Johnson's strategy may not have resulted in a win, but you have to think the 33-year-old is pleased with the result of the fight. Cormier got through a tough weight cut to make it to the fight with Johnson, needing two tries to make the 205-pound limit.
Golden State withstood 75 combined points from the Trail Blazers duo of Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum to triumph in a game that saw 22 lead changes.
"We've got some guys that can make an impact, so we just want to press the gas", he said. "They still made some tough shots, which they're going to do". "I've been like that since I was a little kid".
Nene added 15 points off the bench for the Rockets, who outrebounded the Thunder 56-41 and limited Oklahoma City to just four second-chance points.
Against a Houston team with this much firepower, an 0-1 deficit would seem to suggest that the Thunder is doomed.
German guard Dennis Schroder led the Hawks with 25 points and Paul Millsap had 19.
The Chicago Bulls waited until the final night of the regular season to cement their spot in the postseason.
Playing a day after 22-year-old sister Chyna Thomas was killed in a auto accident in their home state of Washington, Thomas led the Celtics with 33 points.
Thomas led the Celtics with 33 points, hitting a layup with seven seconds left to cut Chicago's lead to 104-102.
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