(The Sports Xchange) – Russell Westbrook scored 29 points and handed out 10 assists as the Oklahoma City Thunder outlasted the San Antonio Spurs 98-97 on Monday in Game 2 of the Western Conference semi-final and tied the best-of-seven series at one win apiece.
The series switches to Oklahoma City for Game 3 on Friday and Game 4 on Sunday before returning to San Antonio for the fifth game on May 10.
Kevin Durant, who had 28 points, canned a floating jump shot off an assist from Westbrook with 33 seconds left to give Oklahoma City a 96-91 lead but the Spurs responded with an Aldridge 3-pointer, just his second of the season.
Westbrook then made two free throws with 18.3 seconds left to push Oklahoma City’s lead back to four points, at 98-94.
Aldridge hit three free throws after being fouled on a 3-point attempt with 13.5 seconds left to bring the Spurs to within 98-97.
On the ensuing inbounds play, San Antonio’s Danny Green stole the ball from Durant and it was eventually passed in the corner to Patty Mills, who missed a 3-pointer with two seconds left. The two teams scrambled for the ball under the basket but the Spurs could not get off another shot.
Serge Ibaka, Enes Kanter and Steven Adams added 12 points apiece for the Thunder and Adams pulled down 17 rebounds.
Aldridge led the Spurs with a season-high 41 points while Kawhi Leonard had 14 points on 7-of-18 shooting. Manu Ginobili hit for 11 points for San Antonio, which lost for just the second time at home all season.
The Thunder flipped the script from its ragged Game 1 start by going right at San Antonio and building a 9-2 lead four minutes into the game.
