OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) Tired wasn’t an option for Russell Westbrook on Friday night.
The explosive point guard had 51 points in a triple-double and scored the winning points in the Oklahoma City Thunder’s 113-110 overtime victory over the Phoenix Suns on Friday night.
He played just over 45 minutes and never slowed down.
”You’ve got to want to win,” he said. ”Very simple. When you want to win, you don’t think about being tired. To me, being tired is a mind thing. It’s in your mind. You’ve got to go out there and compete at a high level and leave it on the floor.”
According to the Thunder, it was the first 50-point triple-double since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had one in 1975. Westbrook finished with 13 rebounds and 10 assists and took a career-high 44 shots to claim his 38th career triple-double.
It was the franchise’s first game without Kevin Durant on the roster since it moved to Oklahoma City in 2008. Durant left in the offseason to play for the Golden State Warriors. In Oklahoma City’s home opener, Westbrook reminded the fans that there’s still star power in town.
Westbrook made a layup to put the Thunder up a point with 7.6 seconds remaining. Phoenix’s Devin Booker missed a layup and Westbrook was fouled. Westbrook scored his 50th and 51st points at the free-throw line with 3.5 seconds remaining. Booker missed a 3-pointer as time expired.
Westbrook has 38 career triple-doubles. He scored 39 points in the second half and overtime.
T.J. Warren had a career-high 30 points for the Suns.
In New York, Jeremy Lin had 21 points and just missed a triple-double in his Brooklyn home debut while Brook Lopez scored 25 as the Nets got their first victory, 103-94 over Indiana.
Lin finished with nine rebounds and nine assists, drawing some delirious cheers the way he briefly did during his run of Linsanity last time he played in New York, with the Knicks in 2012.
Sean Kilpatrick hit consecutive 3-pointers during the decisive fourth-quarter surge as the Nets gave new coach Kenny Atkinson his first victory, not far from where the Northport native grew up.
In New Orleans, Kevin Durant scored 30 points and Klay Thompson 28 as Golden State bounced back emphatically from a surprising season-opening loss with a 122-114 win over the Pelicans.
After scoring only six points on five shot attempts in the first half, Stephen Curry asserted himself more with an array of inside and deep shots to finish with 23 points, including a momentum-swinging 8-0 run by himself in the third quarter. Durant also had 17 rebounds.
In other games, Cleveland held on to win 94-91 at Toronto, Charlotte won 97-91 at Miami, Houston won at Dallas 106-98, Utah won 96-89 at home to the Los Angeles Lakers, and Detroit beat the visiting Orlando 108-82.
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