Westbrook and Durant accounted for 75 points together and led the Thunder to a 3OT victory over the Grizzlies.

Epic victory for the Oklahoma City Thunder over the Memphis Grizzlies by 133-123 on Monday night to tie the series to two games apiece. This has surely been the most exciting game so far in the Western Conference semifinals as 3OT were required to finally have a winner. That winner was Oklahoma City and it wouldn’t have been possible without an outstanding night from Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant that together accounted for 56% of the squad’s points.

After 2OT it was clear that the game was going to be won the most physical squad. Until here both teams had kept up the pace by tying to 96 points in the regular time, to 13 in the first five extra minutes, and to ten in the following five minutes. But in the third and final OT all that effort was going to play against them by transforming into fatigue.

That tiredness began to weight more on Memphis’ side than on Oklahoma City’s, and the Thunder didn’t miss the chance to close the game. They outplayed the demolished Grizzlies by ten points in the third OT and will enjoy of the home field advantage for game five, which will be disputed on Wednesday at the Oklahoma City Arena.

Besides Westbrook and Durant another Thunder who also had a great night, but coming in from the bench, was James Harden with 19 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists. His help was vital to end up winning a game where they found themselves down by 18 points in the second quarter, to end up forcing the overtime that gave them such great results throughout the regular season with an 8-2 record in this type of games.

Despite not winning, it was thanks to a rival like them that this game was epic. The Grizzlies gave until the last drop of sweat that they had to win it, but their fatigue ended up weighting more than their desire. Even the bench tried their best reporting 41 points to the cause, but those final five minutes were just killer for them and they ended up being outplayed at home.

Memphis had in Marc Gasol their top performer, signing 26 points and 21 rebounds, and in Zach Randolph their top scorer with his 34 points. Both players gave their impressions after the game, which for Gasol left the satisfaction of having tried "our best. The effort was there. We fought. We scratched, but we couldn't get ahead in overtime." To what Randolph added that they "thought it was destined for us to win, but ain't nothing given to you in the NBA."

They sure must have felt that the game was under their control in the second quarter when they were up by 18, but they weren’t counting on the Thunder hitting 15 of 17 shots in that quarter to get back into a game that they ended up winning by a 10 point lead.

From what has been seen in the last four games this is a pretty even series, so even that it becomes very hard to predict which of the two will be joining the Dallas Mavericks in the Western Conference Finals. What we can predict is an intense game five that will be won by the team that accuses less the extra effort from Monday night.