Blazers overcome Thunder, Westbrook's 58 points
OKLAHOMA CITY -- Despite a career-high 58 points from Russell Westbrook, the Oklahoma City Thunder lost to the Portland Trail Blazers 126-121 on Tuesday night at the Chesapeake Energy Arena.
Seven Blazers scored in double figures led by Allen Crabbe, who posted 23 points. Damian Lillard scored 22 points on 8-of-17 shooting. CJ McCollum added 21 points for the Blazers (27-35).
Westbrook shot 21 of 39 to go along with nine assists. He was the only Thunder starter to register an assist. Victor Oladipo scored 16 points in his first game back from injury and Enes Kanter came off the bench to score 11 points.
Oklahoma City (35-29) lost its fourth straight game.
Westbrook drained a jumper with 4:03 remaining. On the next possession, he dished to Andre Roberson for a breakaway dunk to close the deficit to 112-111.
Portland's Jusuf Nurkic hit a pair of free throws before Westbrook hit two of his own.
The Thunder came up with a stop and Westbrook was sent back to the free throw line. He hit 1 of 2 to tie the game at 114. After Westbrook broke his career high in scoring, he missed missed three consecutive shots and the Blazers took an 118-116 lead with 41.9 left.
Nurkic put the Thunder up four with a whirling spin in the paint that led to a right hook shot.
Coming out of a timeout, Westbrook found a trailing Victor Oladipo who drained his fourth 3-pointer to close the gap to 120-119.
McCollum hit two free throws with 15.1 seconds left to give the Blazers a 3-point advantage. After a timeout, Westbrook had a good look at a game-tying 3-pointer, but it was off the mark and the Blazers held on.
NOTES: Oklahoma City G Victor Oladipo missed the last six games with back spasms. The Thunder went 3-3 during the span. "He went through his warm-ups, He feels good," Thunder coach Billy Donovan said. "I think when you have a back like he has, it's really hard to maintain that conditioning." ... Portland coach Terry Stotts is surprised that C Jusuf Nurkic is so talented. "Since we've gotten him, he has a better shooting touch than most people realized," Stotts said. "Obviously his passing has come to the forefront. He has been very good in what we like to do." ... G Reggie Williams returned to the Oklahoma City Thunder's D-League team after completing a 10-day contract with the New Orleans Pelicans. In his six games with the Pelicans this season, he averaged 4.5 points and 1.0 rebound in 13.2 minutes.