The Oklahoma City Thunder have been playing well despite the loss of point guard Russell Westbrook to a knee injury for the rest of the postseason and the team has the chance to send the Houston Rockets away for good with a win on Monday night in Game 4 at the Toyota Center in Houston after winning the first three games of the series.
Westbrook was injured in Game 2 after rookie Patrick Beverley tried to steal the ball from him and collided his hip with Westbrook's knee and after sitting out the second half he found out he had a torn meniscus in his knee and after surgery he will be out for the rest of the Thunder's run. OKC has been able to rebound from losing Westbrook in Game 3 after a 41 point night from Kevin Durant, but it's unclear if they will be able to keep that up for the rest of the playoffs.
Durant will again be the focal point for the Thunder, while James Harden and Jeremy Lin will try to take advantage of the absence of Westbrook to stay alive and win at least one game in the series before being eliminated. While the Thunder are down a Westbrook, no team has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit in the postseason and Houston likely won't be the first since Lin is not 100%. Chandler Parsons has been solid during the series and things were more intense in Game 4 when Durant went after the ball against Lin in a slight bit of revenge for the Westbrook play.
Lin has not been fully healthy during his first playoff appearance in his career and now he is the most high profile point guard in the series after Westbrook went down. The Thunder will have to find a way to win without Westbrook in the lineup and so far Durant has proven to be able to pick up the slack, but that could change as they move further in the playoffs against tougher teams like the Spurs, who swept the Lakers in the first round. Lin may miss the game after bruising his chest and he was limited to under 20 minutes in the game and scored just two points. If Lin plays he likely will not be at full speed and the team could miss out on winning at least one game in the playoffs for the first time in years.
Houston is one of the highest scoring teams in the league this season and they will need James Harden to be at his best in Game 4 to take home the victory. Durant has been averaging over 30 points per game during the playoffs and will be the main option for the Thunder on offense on Monday night.