The Associated Press
Cliff Brunt
OKLAHOMA CITY–The Cleveland Cavaliers considered resting their stars, then played the Oklahoma City Thunder at full strength and lost anyway.
Russell Westbrook scored 29 points, and had his 26th triple-double of the season, to lead Oklahoma City to a 118-109 victory last night.
Cavaliers’ coach Tyronn Lue said after Wednesday’s win at Indiana that he was considering resting all-stars LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Love, but they all started.
“There was a lot of drama going on before the game,” noted Thunder coach Billy Donovan.
“Who’s playing? Who’s not playing,” he remarked.
“They’re in. They’re out. They may play. It looks like they’re going to play.
“I just really told our guys, even in shootaround this morning, it’s about what we need to do and we need to understand personnel like we do for every scout,” Donovan stressed.
Irving scored 28 points, James had 18, while Love added 15 points and 12 rebounds for the Cavaliers.
“It was good to go through something tough,” Lue said.
“It was a tough game for us,” he admitted. “Four games in six nights, and it was good to fight through and not give in, so our guys came out and played.
“I liked how we competed.”
The Cavaliers beat New York, Washington, and Indiana before ending their road trip in Oklahoma City.
“We would have loved to be 4-0 but coming off a back-to-back, you know they gave us everything they had,” James said.
“We go home extremely proud of what we did on this road trip.”
Victor Oladipo scored 23 points, Steven Adams had 20 points and 13 rebounds, and Westbrook added 12 rebounds and 11 assists in the 63rd triple-double of his career.
Oklahoma City now can focus on its showdown with former teammate Kevin Durant and the Golden State Warriors tomorrow.
Elsewhere in the NBA, Houston beat Charlotte 107-95, Philadelphia nipped Orlando 112-111, Dallas downed Utah 112-105 (OT), and Boston topped Portland 120-111.
