Russell Westbrook leads Thunder to fifth straight win
"Merry Christmas!" he yelled, with the final horn sounding behind him as the Oklahoma City Thunder took down the Houston Rockets 112-107. Westbrook was sensational with 31 points, 6 rebounds and 11 assists, overcoming a 2-of-10 shooting start to hit 10 of his final 14 attempts.
But as good as Westbrook was, along with Carmelo Anthony (20 points on 8-of-12 shooting) and Paul George (24 on 8-of-15), a rare game in which all three played well, it was Andre Roberson who sealed a merry Christmas for the Thunder. Roberson, who had to be subbed out late in the fourth quarter after the Rockets deployed their hacking strategy, made a game-sealing block on James Harden's patented step-back 3-pointer and finished a layup seconds later to put the Thunder up five with 21 seconds left.
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Jerry Jones says he will not be firing or replacing Jason Garrett as Cowboys coach
The Cowboys' coach will be back for an eighth season in 2018
The Dallas Cowboys fell short of their goal to make the postseason this year, going 8-7 through Week 16. It is reasonable to wonder if change could/should be comingdown the pipe for Dallas, particularly at the position of head coach. But it will not be happening.
Cowboys owner and GM Jerry Jones appeared on 105.3 The Fan, the CBS Sports Radio affiliate in Dallas, and said it would not be in Dallas' "best interest" to make a coaching change this offseason.
"I certainly know a lot about Jason Garrett. Because of that, I can quickly and candidly say his job is not an issue here, at all," Jones said on Tuesday. "It's not in the best interest of the Cowboys to be considering a coaching change."
The Cowboys' best-case scenario involves them going 9-7 by winning against the Eagles on Sunday in Philadelphia. Any Week 17 victory will be of the moral variety at best, because neither team has anything to play for -- the Eagles have secured home-field advantage throughout the postseason already thanks to their Week 16 Christmas evening win over the Raiders, and the Cowboys are eliminated with a week to play.
A lack of quality games is exactly why the NFL decided to cancel the Sunday night Week 17 game.
But a lack of importance for the Week 17 game is not going to scare Jones into making a decision when it comes to his head coach. This despite Garrett being, more or less, an average coach through his first seven season with the Cowboys.
He has the 2016 season and his Coach of the Year award to hang his hat on, after the Cowboys went 13-3 and secured the top seed in the NFC before falling in disappointing fashion in the playoffs. Other than that, he has just one season where he made the playoffs and he is just 66-52 as the Cowboys coach.
Garrett's 55.9 winning percentage in the regular season is lower than that of both Wade Phillips and Dave Campo (although higher than Bill Parcells for whatever that's worth). Read More Here
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