THE OKLAHOMA CITY Thunder have qualified for the NBA Western Conference finals with a 106-90 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers.
Kobe Bryant scored 42 points for the Lakers but it was not enough for the visitors as Russell Westbrook (28 points) and Kevin Durant (25) led the Thunder to a 4-1 semi-final series victory.
The Thunder pulled away in the third quarter after Westbrook made a long-range two-pointer, which put the home side 75-73 in front.
Oklahoma City scored 31 points to 17 for the rest of the game, including outscoring the Lakers by 10 points in the final quarter, to win game five and earn a spot in the Western Conference finals against the San Antonio Spurs.
In the other NBA playoff game, the Boston Celtics took a 3-2 lead in their Eastern Conference semi-final series, defeating the Philadelphia 76ers 101-85.
The home side trailed the 76ers by three points at half-time but Brandon Bass inspired the Celtics to a 28-16 third quarter, which set up their win.
Bass scored 18 points in the third quarter for Boston for a total of 27 for the game, his highest scoring performance ever in the NBA playoffs.
Kevin Garnett chipped in with 20 points for the Celtics, while for Philadelphia Elton Brand top-scored with 19 points.
The Celtics can wrap up their Eastern Conference semi-final series on Wednesday with a win in Philadelphia.
Watch Russell Westbrook’s steal and shot from the third quarter:
YouTube credit: NBA
Well done Sir.
You are a credit to your parents and show people that though they can suffer depression that they can still manage it. Your laying it out straight. Great meas in you.
Nice one. Great to see someone like this talk about these problems
Who are the bottom feeding monkey shite who neg a comment like this?
I just gave my last comment the thumbs up….s’nice
Fair play to Alan coming out and talking about depression. A brave thing to do for such a high profile figure
@James – Regarding the thumbs down, i read a post recently where someone said they didn’t mean to ‘thumb down’ a comment, but the problem was that they were viewing the Journal on a smartphone and they would press the thumbs down by accident when they were scrolling through the comments.
At least i hope that’s the case for Emsy’s post :-)
Well done Quinny! For a player who’s nickname was cheeky and to to survive for so long in a career that’s perceived to be “macho” it’s an even bigger credit to you for speaking out. Hopefully it’ll make life easier for others to do the same.
Great stuff. Each day is an opportunity for “self help” or “self pity” the decision comes slowly to those with depression. Thankfully by talking about it people turn a huge corner and help others. Well done.
Another great sportsman hitting his depression head on, depression is of biblical proportions in this country and only now are we talking about it, the reasons why people hid it in the first place in actual fact was because they really did not know what they had…. Nothing to be ashamed of. I am 44 , ex soldier, hard as nails ( well not really) been suffering for 7 years , no meds at the moment as I have an underlying problem… But hey bad days are bad, good days are few but help is coming soon.
Well done Alan . I hope the media give it huge coverage especially in the sports pages as alot of the time they are the only pages young people read and they do need to understand more than anything else that depression is nothing to be ashamed of or fear . Sadly our graveyards are full of young men who were to afraid to seek help
Great post Jerry, well said
If Quinny saves one person from years of depression and missed positive experiences what a man he is and deserves all life can bring him keep it up lad : )
Great to see sufferers open up and talk so frankly about it. As someone who suffers from depression, I take great comfort in watching someone get it out in the open. Depression comes in many forms and at different levels of severity.
Stereotypically we think of sufferers locked away in a dark room, crying and drinking heavily, listening to Morrissey. In reality, it’s very different. Reason , logic and rational thinking are thrown out the window and instead you are bombarded with negative thoughts, that you believe. Men are much more likely to suffer as we think that looking for help is a weakness, and that we can do it by ourselves. We can’t.
The road to recovery isn’t as daunting as you may think. Pick up the phone and talk to someone.