Jazz at Thunder
Oklahoma City point guard Russell Westbrook is having a memorable season
and aims to record his fourth consecutive triple-double when the
Thunder host the Utah Jazz on Thursday. Westbrook has posted 15
triple-doubles this season, the most in the NBA since the 1988-89
campaign when Magic Johnson had 17 and Michael Jordan had 15.
Westbrook had 21 points, 15 assists and 13 rebounds in his latest standout performance during Tuesday's 111-107 victory over the Houston Rockets. He also continues to deflect all praise for his feats — seemingly not impressed to hear his team has won all 15 of those games or that he's in the company of Hall of Famers like Johnson and Jordan. "I'm just blessed to be able to play the game I love and have an opportunity to play with such great guys," Westbrook told reporters. “My teammates do a great job of helping me out. I just try to go out and compete at a high level every night." Utah has ripped off six victories in its last seven games and Wednesday's crucial 89-87 road victory over Houston moved the Jazz into a tie for seventh place with the Dallas Mavericks in the Western Conference playoff race.
TV: 8 p.m. ET, ROOT (Utah), FSN Oklahoma
ABOUT THE JAZZ (35-36): Center Derrick Favors had 17 points and 15 rebounds against the Rockets and his biggest contribution was the tiebreaking dunk with 1.6 seconds remaining that gave Utah a pivotal victory. "It feels good to know we're still in it," Favors told reporters. "But we're not in there yet so we've got to continue to work hard, play hard and keep winning games." The Jazz broke a six-game losing streak in Houston and face another tough chore against the Thunder as they have dropped nine straight visits to Oklahoma City.
ABOUT THE THUNDER (49-22): Oklahoma City has won five consecutive games and the duo of Westbrook and small forward Kevin Durant appear primed to make a playoff run. Durant praised the team's defense as being solid in the win over the Rockets and he also reminded reporters that Westbrook isn't fueled by stats or milestones. "One thing about Russell is he doesn't really play for that stuff," Durant told reporters. "That's not really important to us. For him, of course it's cool to have that many triple-doubles, but it's about winning at the end of the day."
BUZZER BEATERS
1. The Thunder are 3-0 against the Jazz this season and have won the past four meetings.
2. Utah SF Gordon Hayward scored 22 points against Houston for his fifth 20-point outing of the month.
3. Oklahoma City backup C Enes Kanter has six double-doubles in the past nine games.