chenyan94: After Wednesday’s game

For a second straight game [url=authenticlosangeleschargers.com/cheap-kyzir-white-jersey]Kyzir White Color Rush Jersey[/url] , a late second-quarter surge by Utah carried over into the second half and it allowed the Jazz to pull away for a 113-96 victory Monday night. The Jazz used a 20-3 run spanning the end of the second quarter and the start of the third to break open the game.

Utah takes a 3-1 series lead back to Oklahoma City. Game 5 in the best-of-seven playoff is Wednesday night.

Donovan Mitchell had 33 points and seven rebounds to lead the Jazz to their third straight win in the series. Joe Ingles added 20 points, hitting five 3-pointers.

Mitchell’s willingness to attack the rim put the Thunder on their heels throughout the second half.

”He’s done a good job of getting in there and finishing or dropping it off,” Jazz coach Quin Snyder said. ”It’s an important part of what we do. He’s our most dynamic offensive player.”

Rudy Gobert added 16 points and 10 rebounds. Ricky Rubio chipped in 13 points, eight assists and six boards. Derrick Favors also scored 13.

Paul George had 32 points and Russell Westbrook added 23 points and 14 rebounds to lead the Thunder, who shot 39 percent from the field.

”I thought we played downhill a lot more,” coach Billy Donovan said. ”I thought we were at the rim a lot more. From there, we probably missed some opportunities to move the ball. I thought our ball movement was sporadic and sometimes it was very good.”

The Thunder opened a 26-19 lead late in the first quarter when Carmelo Anthony capped a string of three straight Oklahoma City baskets with an alley-oop layup. They held onto the lead for much of the second quarter until Utah finally woke up on offense.

Starting with Gobert cutting to the rim for a dunk with 3:45 left in the second quarter, the Jazz scored on 11 straight possessions. Ingles fueled the surge by hitting three consecutive 3s to put Utah in front 58-52 before halftime.

”These guys are great at telling me to shoot it as much as possible within the flow of our team and our offense,” Ingles said.

The surge Ingles kept going finally culminated in another dunk by Gobert that punctuated the decisive 20-3 run that gave Utah a 67-52 lead.

”The whole year, one of the things that we’ve wanted to do collectively is try to generate open shots,” Snyder said. ”You’re not always going to make them [url=www.authenticspittsburghsteelers.com/cheap-chukwuma-okorafor-jersey]Chukwuma Okorafor Color Rush Jersey[/url] , but you want to keep taking them. Eventually, you’re going to make some. We hit some timely ones in the second half.”

The Jazz led by as many as 21 in the third quarter. Utah went up 87-68 when Mitchell drained a jumper and then fed Ingles for a 3-pointer on the ensuing possession.

Physical play and heated emotions characterized the game. Both teams picked up two technical fouls before halftime. Jae Crowder was ejected after a technical foul with 5:30 remaining in the fourth quarter.

”That’s just what you’re going to get with a playoff team,” George said. ”It’s playoff basketball. It’s going to get chippy. It’s going to get physical. We’re in it for the fight.”

TIP-INS

Thunder: Westbrook finished with his fourth consecutive double-double in the series. … Anthony went just 5 of 18 from the field. … Oklahoma City totaled one assist in the third quarter and finished with 10 for the game. … The Thunder shot 5 of 26 from 3-point range.

Jazz: Ingles is 10 of 21 from 3-point range over his last two games. … Utah forced 15 turnovers. … Royce O’ Neale finished with a career playoff-high nine rebounds. … Rubio is averaging eight assists per game in the series.

WESTBROOK VS. RUBIO

Westbrook publicly promised to shut down Rubio in Game 4 after the Jazz point guard notched a triple-double in Game 3. His aggressiveness ended up with Westbrook drawing four personal fouls in the first half. In the end, Rubio shot just 4 of 12 from the field, but he finished with two fewer assists (eight) than the Thunder tallied as a team.

Following the game, Westbrook did not want to discuss how he guarded Rubio.

”It wasn’t about me or him,” he said. ”Let’s get past that. We done with that.”

RECORD SETTER

Mitchell set a postseason rookie scoring record for the Jazz, passing Karl Malone, who had 31 points on April 20, 1986, against the Mavericks. Mitchell is the first rookie to have a 30-point playoff game since Brandon Jennings did it in 2010. Mitchell is just the third rookie in the last 50 years to score 110-plus points in his first four playoff games [url=www.buccaneersauthorizedshops.com/authentic-m.j.-stewart-jersey]http://www.buccaneersauthorizedshops.com/authentic-m.j.-stewart-jersey[/url] , joining Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Michael Jordan.

”It’s definitely an honor to have a record like that,” Mitchell said. &rdquoefinitely an honor. No doubt about that, but we have one more game, so I’m focused on that.”

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PITTSBURGH — The rearview mirror was a popular item, at least figuratively, for the Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers on their day between playoff games Thursday.

The Penguins, defending Stanley Cup champions, downplayed their 7-0 series-opening win in which they dominated in pretty much every area and vowed to concentrate on Game 2 on Friday night at PPG Paints Arena.

The Flyers, conversely, were hoping to move past the painful loss and even the first-round series before it moves to Philadelphia.

“It’s one game. Whether it’s 7-0 or 1-0 in double overtime, it’s one game [url=www.edmontonoilersteamshops.com/authentic-ryan-mcleod-jersey]Ryan McLeod Oilers Jersey[/url] ,” said Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby, who had a hat trick in Game 1. “A big part in the playoffs is to get better every game and adjust. That’s the way you have to look at it.”

The Penguins expect the Flyers to do the same, and to charge back Friday.

“We know it’s going to be a tough challenge; they’re a good hockey team,” Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan said. “We would expect that they would respond appropriately.”

Philadelphia has not been able to do that so far. Pittsburgh swept four games between the teams during the regular season, scoring five goals in each of those games, before trouncing their cross-state and Metropolitan Division rivals Wednesday in their postseason opener.

Flyers coach Dave Hakstol said the game looked just as lopsided when he reviewed it on video.

“They did an outstanding job,” Hakstol said of the Penguins. “They were the better team. There was very little time, space. They were the quicker team, and they executed in all the little areas of the game better than we did.

“You can’t go out in practice and work on everything. It doesn’t work that way … so we just picked a couple of things that we wanted to try to brush up on. The other things, we’ll have to do through a little bit of video, a little bit of discussion [url=www.texansauthorizedshops.com/authentic-keke-coutee-jersey]http://www.texansauthorizedshops.com/authentic-keke-coutee-jersey[/url] , and mostly just clearing the mind and getting the focus back on Game 2.”

Flyers captain Claude Giroux, who had 102 points during the regular season, was highly disappointed after Game 1, when he was minus-4 for the first time this season.

“It’s one of the worst games I’ve been a part of,” Giroux said. “I was terrible. I made a lot of bad plays.”

Still, he was confident enough about the Flyers bouncing back that he was willing to predict a win in Game 2.

“We’ve got to play better and play with a little bit more attitude,” Giroux said. “We’ve got a day here to think about it. We’re going to get out of this together, win the next game and go back home 1-1.”

While Pittsburgh goaltender Matt Murray is coming off a 24-save shutout and has a franchise-record 206:26 shutout streak dating to last year’s Stanley Cup Final, it remains to be seen whether Philadelphia will come back with Brian Elliott, who gave up five goals on 16 shots in Game 1, or switch to Petr Mrazek [url=www.billscheapshop.com/cheap-authentic-josh-allen-jersey]Authentic Josh Allen Jersey[/url] , who allowed two goals on 14 shots in relief.

After Wednesday’s game, Hakstol said his inclination was to stick with Elliott, but he declined to confirm that after practice Thursday.

“I’m not ready to say anything about lineups,” Hakstol said. “I fully stand by what I said (Wednesday) night. That was how I felt. I’m not going to move away for sure from that, but I’m not making any lineup decisions or announcing any lineup decisions (Thursday).”