Russell Westbrook had 35 points, 11 rebounds and 9 assists to push the Spurs to the brink of elimination.
“He’s so competitive, and there’s a fine line, because when you’re that competitive you’ve also got to be able to control and lead your team,” Thunder coach Billy Donovan said. “You don’t ever want to take away that competitiveness from him, but the one thing I admire so much about him is he just lays it on the line. He’s flying around, throwing his body — even the play Kawhi [Leonard] dunked, the effort to try and go make the play the length of the floor, the loose balls, the offensive rebounds.
“He plays with such force and such passion. I think he’s doing a really good job of realizing when he gets so intense, so competitive, so emotional, he’s doing a good job of kind of bringing himself back together and understanding there’s four other guys out there depending on him.”
