HOUSTON (AP) - While everyone must wait more than two months for the NBA's MVP to be announced, the league will showcase the two front-runners for the honor in James Harden and Russell Westbrook when the Houston Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder open a first-round playoff series Sunday night. Harden, who along with Westbrook is a front-runner for MVP, went to the bench, and both teams cleared their benches soon after that.
WARRIORS 121, TRAIL BLAZERS 109: Kevin Durant had 32 points and 10 rebounds in his Golden State playoff debut, Stephen Curry scored 29 points, and the Warriors withstood a sensational day by Portland duo CJ McCollum and Damian Lillard in Game 1 at Oakland.
Westbrook had 22 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists, but made just 6 of 23 shots and had nine turnovers for the sixth-seeded Thunder. It's going to take a team effort to level the series in Game 2 but I'm looking specifically at Victor Oladipo to make an impact after he finished with just six points on one of 12 shooting in Game 1. They came out extremely slow to start the game, and they got very little offensively from some usual major contributors.
Harden made a pair of free throws to cap the third quarter and leave Houston up 89-74 entering the fourth.
D'Antoni has been drilling those numbers into his players' heads for weeks, bringing it up repeatedly as soon as it looked like the Rockets would draw the Thunder in the first round.
Against a Houston team with this much firepower, an 0-1 deficit would seem to suggest that the Thunder is doomed.
By halftime of Game 1, the Houston lead amounted to only five points.
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Russ also finished with 11 rebounds and 7 assists, which was nearly a triple double, which just goes to show how worthless that stat line can be unless put into the proper context of actual wins on the court.
Rockets: Capela missed a few minutes in the second quarter to receive three stitches in his lip.
Reserve Houston big man Nene provided energy and productivity, scoring 15 points in only 19 minutes.
OKC was dominated in the paint by 24, they were out rebounded by 15 and the Rockets had 31 second chance points compared to OKC's four. Dwight Howard had 14 rebounds but just seven points.
One of the moments of the match was a screen by Adams on Beverley. "Go out there and prove we're just as good, too". "We have to get back to the drawing board".
Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook, right, is applauded by Oscar Robertson, left, on his triple-double record, before an NBA basketball game between the Denver Nuggets and the Thunder in Oklahoma City, Wednesday, Apri. Their relationship goes back way before their Oklahoma City days, when they were teammates from 2009 to '12.
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