Rockets eliminate Thunder: 3 takeaways from Game 5

The Houston Rockets ended the season of the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday night with a 105-99 win to close out the best-of-seven series, 4-1. Here are a few takeaways from Game 5.

And just like that, Russell Westbrook and the Oklahoma City Thunder are headed home. Westbrook threw everything he had, literally, at the Rockets but in the end, it once again wasn’t enough and Houston came out of the Toyota Center with a 105-99 win to take the first-round series four games to one.

The Thunder didn’t have the blistering start they had in the previous three games but still led after the first quarter for the fifth consecutive game behind Westbrook, who was brilliant in the first 12 minutes. And yes, he played all 12 minutes of the first instead of sitting down for the final minute and a half like he usually does. The Thunder took six-point lead, 22-16, into the second quarter but with Brodie on the bench for a few minutes, the Rockets got back into it, tying the game at 27. After showing a lot of intensity and aggressiveness driving to the basket in the first, Westbrook began to settle for jumpers in the second and the Rockets began to dominate the paint, doubling up the Thunder in that category to take a 51-44 lead into the locker room.

But Westbrook refused to let his team go away that easy and had a monster third quarter, scoring 20 points and hitting big shot after big shot. Oklahoma City went on a 12-3 run in the middle of the quarter and another 7-0 run a few minutes later to take a 77-72 lead into the final frame. But it was clear to see that Russell Westbrook was running out of gas with those last two 3-point attempts in the third, which Reggie Miller called a “heat check.” I’m going to go ahead and take his word for because…well, he’s Reggie Miller.

And then it was over. Sure, the fourth quarter was somewhat entertaining to watch but there was a lot of sloppy basketball and Westbrook just went ice cold, going just 2-for-11 in the fourth quarter and walked off the court as the final buzzer sounded. Houston, on the other hand, once again played a well-balanced game. James Harden struggled shooting the basketball once again, going just 8-for-25 from the floor, but still scored 34 points to lead the way for the Rockets and I’ll have some thoughts on his supporting cast in just a moment as we look at what I took away from Game 5.

Takeaways

Houston is just so well-balanced. I know I keep going back to this in my takeaways but there’s only so many ways I can say it and it just so happens that it keeps ringing true. Yes, James Harden ran his usual line with 34 points, excellent free throw shooting, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, “MVP! MVP!” and all of that but I continue to be so very impressed with his teammates picking him up when he’s struggling from the floor. After two subpar efforts, Patrick Beverley had a nice bounce=back effort in Game 5, scoring 15 points on 6-for-10 shooting and playing some tough defense late in the game. Nene had another solid effort off the bench with 14 points and did actually miss a few shots on the night. He also added 7 rebounds in 25 minutes of action. Eric Gordon had a bit of an off night, outside of that monster jam over Jerami Grant anyway, but Lou Williams picked up the slack with another big game, scoring 22 big points on 7-for-14 shooting. The Rockets can just put up points in a hurry and they’re going to be a force to be reckoned with as these playoffs continue.  

There’s something about Jerami Grant that I really like. I don’t know exactly why he stood out to me as much as he did on Tuesday night but there was something about the way Jerami Grant was playing that really impressed me. He’s had a nice series overall, nearly doubling his season average in points with 9.2 points per game in this series but he seemed like one of the only members of the Thunder not named Russell Westbrook that was playing with a sense of urgency. He was trying to make extra plays, slashing to the rim when Westbrook drove the lane and just doing all the little things one needs to do to want a guy like that on your team. He’s never going to be a superstar in this league but at just 23 years of age, the son of Harvey Grant has a bright future as a role player.

There’s no solution to the Russell Westbrook “problem”. It really doesn’t much matter seeing as how the Thunder are going home and I know it seems like this entire thing has been about OKC but as I’ve still got some takeaways from the series as a whole coming your way, I just wanted to keep the focus on this game in particular. The biggest takeaway from this game is that Russell Westbrook can’t do everything and there’s a lot of pressure for him to do just that. He’s a phenomenal player, easily one of the best in the world, but if he can’t rely on his teammates in the clutch and Billy Donovan can’t sit him down, there’s just no way that the Thunder can win anything with this group of guys. Sure, there were three other players in double figures for Oklahoma City but if I don’t list them here (and I’m not going to), would you know who they were? Russell Westbrook tried to put the team on his back and fell over. But is Victor Oladipo shooting 4-for-17 really Westbrook’s fault? He put up 47/9/11 and he’s going to take the blame for this. So is the Russell Westbrook “problem” really a problem?

Next: Every NBA team's greatest playoff moment

As I mentioned, I’ll be back with more takeaways from this series as a whole so be sure to check back in with FanSided for that and we urge you to just come back each and every day anyway for continuing coverage of the 2017 NBA Playoffs.