LOS ANGELES (AFP) – Russell Westbrook bagged a second consecutive triple double as the Oklahoma City Thunder staged a late rally to sink the Utah Jazz on Tuesday.
Westbrook, who had guided the Thunder to a victory over San Antonio on Sunday with his seventh triple of the season, bagged his eighth of the campaign in a 100-94 win at the Chesapeake Energy Arena.
The reigning NBA MVP finished with 34 points, 13 rebounds and 14 assists as OKC improved to 11-12 in the Western Conference standings.
Paul George had 21 points and New Zealand center Steven Adams 20 while Carmelo Anthony added 14 for the home side.
Donovan Mitchell led the scoring for Utah with 31 points while Joe Ingles had 16 points.
Westbrook’s virtuoso performance helped dig the Thunder out of a hole after Utah raced into a 28-19 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Utah led 47-39 at half-time and jumped out to an 80-68 lead heading into the final quarter.
But with Utah seemingly poised for victory, the Thunder exploded in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Jazz 32-14 to win.
“Russell Westbrook, the MVP of the league, got going,” Jazz coach Quin Snyder said.
‘’I thought in the third quarter he gave them a lot of energy and gave them points.
‘’I thought we ran out of steam a little bit just emotionally.
‘’We’ve got to be able to play through that, but I thought all in all, obviously you want to win, but there’s a lot of good things that we did.’’
Elsewhere on Tuesday, Devin Booker’s scintillating run of recent form came to an unhappy end as the Phoenix Suns prodigy was carried off the court in his team’s defeat to the Toronto Raptors.
Booker, who had scored 46 points on Monday and 38 points on Saturday, was helped away at the end of the fourth quarter after bagging 19 points.
Toronto claimed a 126-113 win to improve to 15-7 as Phoenix fell to 9-17.
Kyle Lowry was the key figure for the Raptors, finishing with 20 points, 10 assists and six rebounds.
