Thunder Loses Fourth In A Row Despite Westbrook's Career-High 58 Points

Russell Westbrook scored a career-high 58 points but it wasn’t enough as the Thunder fell to the Trailblazers, 126-121 on Tuesday night inside of the Chesapeake Energy Arena.

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The Thunder has now lost four consecutive games following its four-game winning streak.

After scoring a season-high 40 points in the first quarter and leading Portland by 11, it looked like the Thunder would end its skid in front of its home crowd, but the Blazers were having none of that. Just like  last Thursday’s matchup, Portland would not go away no matter how many shots the Thunder was making.

The Blazers cut their deficit to only six points at intermission, then thanks to the electric Damian Lillard, Portland was able to tie the game midway through the third quarter. With Allen Crabbe continuing his hot shooting, the Blazers closed the third frame on a 19-9 run and led by seven entering the fourth.

Portland went on to lead by as many as 12 points, but Westbrook wasn’t going to let his team go down without a fight. After scoring 41 points in the first three quarters, Westbrook checked back into the game with 8:28 left with the Thunder down by seven points. After quickly scoring in the post, Westbrook went on to score 11 of OKC’s next 15 points to tie the game at 114-114 with 2:09 left in the game.  

After a CJ McCollum runner put the Blazers up two points, Westbrook responded with a layup to tie it back up, but the Thunder couldn’t keep up the rest of the way as Jusuf Nurkic scored on two incredible post plays to put Portland up for good.

Along with his big scoring night, Westbrook added nine assists, three steals and two rebounds, while Victor Oladipo scored 16 points in his first game back after missing the last six with back spasms. Enes Kanter was the only other Thunder player in double figures with 11 points off the bench.

Crabbe led Portland with 23 points while Lillard scored 22 and McCollum added 21.

Things won’t get easier for OKC, seeing the Thunder will be back in action on Thursday when it hosts the Spurs.