Despite a firm promise to shut down his matchup, Ricky Rubio, in Game 4 against the Utah Jazz, Russell Westbrook of the Oklahoma City Thunder was unable to fulfill it — mired in foul trouble for most of Monday night's game.
Prior to the end of the first quarter, a cutout of Rubio's head fell on the floor and Westbrook got up from the Thunder bench to troll Jazz fans by pretending to crumple it up — but the joke would be ultimately on him.
Westbrook committed his third foul with a swat of a Rubio's mid-range shot as a help defender.
The Thunder still had a 37-33 lead with 7:25 left in the second quarter and Billy Donovan had a chance to take Westbrook out of the game, but he remained in.
“I think probably when he picked up his third and I talked to him, I think there was maybe five or six minutes to go in the second (quarter),” said Donovan, according to Erik Horne of The Oklahoman. “We were playing pretty good basketball. I trust him in that situation.”
Donovan's trust wouldn't pay off, as Westbrook committed an offensive foul on Rubio as the Jazz had made a 9-2 run within one minute and 43 seconds, which gave the hosts a five-point lead.
“I just told him ‘you’ve just got to make sure you don’t pick up a silly one here,’” Donovan said of Westbrook’s fourth foul. “I would have liked to have gotten off the floor (without Westbrook fouling). I was trying to get to about a minute or so just in communicating with him. But he had that offensive foul. It probably at that point in time maybe took away his aggressiveness on defense, but I don’t think it took his aggressiveness away on offense.”
Westbrook's offense was impacted, though — forced to play off the ball and no longer able to go on rampant coast-to-coast mirages after rebounds.
“Not being able to be on the ball, it takes a little bit of aggression away,” Westbrook said. “But things like that happen in a game, and you've just got to figure out how to play with them.”
The Thunder will now go back to Oklahoma City for a pivotal Game 5, hoping to stay alive for another road test, down 3-1 in the series.
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