Westbrook in triple double against Jazz

Oklahoma City Thunder’s Russell Westbrook attempts a free throw against the Orlando Magic at Amway Center back in 2015 [PHOTO: COURTESY]

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 ?nished with 34 points, 13 rebounds and 14 assists as OKC improved to 11-12 in the Western Conference standings.

New Zealand centre 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 ?rst 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. “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.