On the brink of elimination, the Oklahoma City Thunder will have reigning NBA MVP Russell Westbrook for their Game 5 outing against the Utah Jazz on Wednesday. The NBA has reportedly decided against suspending Westbrook for his involvement in a scuffle against Utah on Monday.
Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook has been fined $10,000 by NBA and issued technical foul for incident with Utah’s Rudy Gobert in Game 4 last night.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) April 24, 2018
During an altercation between teammate Raymond Felton and Utah’s Rudy Gobert in the Jazz’ win Monday evening, Westbrook left the bench to get involved. He was at the scorers table, but had not yet checked in.
Here’s the incident in question.
Technical fouls on Felton & Gobert. pic.twitter.com/8kMf0BtXCW
— Boomtown Hoops (@BoomtownHoops) April 24, 2018
Under NBA rules, this means an automatic one-game suspension should have been handed to Westbrook. Obviously, the NBA sees it a bit differently.
Westbrook is averaging 21.3 points on just 37 percent shooting in the series. He’s been completely outplayed by Utah point guard Ricky Rubio over the past three games en route to the Jazz overcoming a series opening defeat by winning all three games.