Russell Westbrook and the Thunder melt down in crunch time again

One day after Kawhi Leonard and Mike Conley gave the basketball universe its best game of the season, James Harden and Russell Westbrook followed up with a Game 4 for the ages.

The Houston Rockets absorbed several blows but came out on top of the Oklahoma City Thunder, 113-109, on Sunday. The Rockets now lead the series, 3-1, with a potentially deciding Game 5 headed back to Houston.

But it took a roller-coaster ride in the game’s final moments to get there, and that ride featured another Oklahoma City late-game meltdown.

Of the Thunder’s fourth-quarter blunders, none was more pronounced than head coach Billy Donovan’s decision to leave Andre Roberson — a 42 percent free throw shooter — in the game while the Rockets employed a Hack-a-Shaq. In just over one minute, from the 4:11 mark to 3:02 in the fourth, Roberson missed six of his eight free throw attempts as Houston’s bench chuckled at his charity stripe woes.

The Rockets outscored the Thunder, 40-32, in the fourth quarter and were able to prevent Oklahoma City from getting any offense by sending Roberson to the line.

With a minute remaining and the Thunder down just three, Westbrook turned the ball over on a critical possession and lost his man on the opposite end of the floor. That led to a Harden step-back, mid-range jump shot that extended the Rockets’ lead to five.

In all, the Thunder held a 14-point third-quarter lead. That advantage evaporated when Westbrook went to the bench. Oklahoma City outscored Houston by 14 points with its MVP front-runner on the floor. When he exited the game, the Rockets erased that lead wholly.

The Thunder’s late-game breakdown was reminiscent of their Game 2 woes, where the Oklahoma City offense reduced to ash behind Westbrook’s 18 fourth-quarter shot attempts. Of those 18, the Thunder guard only made four, while the rest of the team shot 4-of-11 in the final period.

The Thunder already had to be perfect to compete with a team as gifted offensively as the Rockets. Folding late in games won’t help their case, either.

Houston will look to wrap things up when they take Game 5 back home. The Thunder will need another Herculean effort from Westbrook, who posted both his third straight triple-double and the fastest playoff triple-double in the last 20 years, to stay alive.

If Oklahoma City wins, it earns a shot at redemption on its home floor in Game 6. But one thing is for sure: The Thunder can’t melt down the way they did in Game 2 — or on Sunday.