Doug Pensinger/NBAE/Getty Images
You probably woke up this morning still thinking about last night’s game. (Maybe that’s because by the time it ended, your alarm was just a few hours from going off.) You probably woke up thinking about wasted possessions, silly jumpers, stupid turnovers and little ball movement.
In other words, you probably woke up thinking about Russell Westbrook.
Like I said last night, yes, Westbrook was not good. Too many shots, too much forcing, too little trust. He tried to take the weight of the game and put it on his back. It’s an admirable thing for a player to possess that kind of fortitude, but a line always has to be drawn there. Especially when you’ve got this guy named Kevin Durant on the floor with you.
Everyone was talking about Westbrook’s game, his 30 shots and how he hogged in crunch time. So I looked at the Thunder’s last 15 possessions last night, spanning back to about five minutes left. At the time, Oklahoma City trailed 89-83. Let’s rewind.
1. KD attacks the rim and draws a shooting foul. Good offense, good decision by Durant to take the ball into the paint. He sinks both. 89-85, 5:28 left.
2. This was one of those bad possessions. Little ball movement, a lot of dribbling. Result? Westbrook from 20 feet. Clang. 89-85, 4:46 left.
3. Again, smart move by Durant to attack the paint. He gets fouled and sinks both free throws. 89-87, 4:30 left.
4. Westbrook picks up an iffy offensive foul as he bumps into Ty Lawson at the top of the key. Westbrook was trying to force his penetration a bit there and while Lawson sort of exaggerated contact, he got the call. 91-87, 4:03 left.
5. KD misses a 3-pointer. Not the best look in the world, but clean enough, especially for Durant. Westbrook grabs the offensive rebound. New possession for OKC. 93-87, 3:24 left.
6. This was the game’s deciding sequence I think. Westbrook made a really nice drive on the left wing and got to the rim. He did appear to be fouled on the arm and missed a layup at the rim. But instead of forgetting about it, he stood and complained to the baseline official. His man, Lawson, raced up the floor with Westbrook still in the backcourt. The Thunder’s defense had to try and rotate and recover to handle Lawson, leaving Danilo Gallinari wide open for 3. Swish. 96-87, 3:04 left.
7. Westbrook once again attacks the paint. He gets near the rim and misses a running jumper. One of those it’s-bad-because-it-didn’t-go-in type of shots. Kendrick Perkins tries to tip it in but doesn’t get it down. 96-87, 2:53 left.
8. Good offensive set finds Serge Ibaka in a good scoring position and he’s fouled. He makes one of two at the line. 97-88, 2:32 left.
9. Great little give-and-go between Westbrook and James Harden. Westbrook makes an athletic layup for an and-1. 91-97, 2:08 left.
10. Another smart offensive set that has Ibaka wide open from 20 feet. He sinks is calmly. 98-93, 1:40 left.
11. Kind of a scrambly possession here but eventually the Nuggets lose Durant who is wide open for 3 on the right wing. As KD tends to do, he drops is beautifully. 98-96, 1:08 left.
12. After a very big stop, the Thunder improbably have the ball with a chance to take the lead or tie. Everyone is thinking the same thing: KD. And clearly, the Thunder ran a set that seemed to have a couple different options for Durant to get the ball. And he got the ball on the wing with about 10 seconds left with Raymond Felton covering him. KD appeared to sense a double coming so he gave the ball back to Westbrook with eight on the shot clock. Plus, KD saw Gallo was on Westbrook. Now Westbrook had to make a play right there. He got a solid look from 3 with Gallinari covering him. Maybe he should’ve attacked there, but instead he took a decent look. Rimmed out. 98-96, 25 seconds left.
13. Down four, OKC goes for the quick two which Westbrook gets, fairly easily too. 100-98, 16 seconds left.
14. The Nuggets make one of two and here’s the really bad shot by Westbrook. With a solid 15 seconds on the clock, the Thunder chooses not to advance the ball with a timeout, which is unlike Scott Brooks. As a result, the ball goes to Westbrook on the inbound and he tries to do it all on his own. He takes a fairly wild 3 that airballs. Now again, horrible, stupid shot. But I have to wonder why Brooks didn’t take a timeout here. He’s taken one in this situation all season long. Because he didn’t have a chance to talk to his group and make them understand time and situation, Westbrook seemed to sort of go tunnel vision trying to desperately tie the game. I think this was as much a gaffe by Brooks as it was a bad shot by Westbrook. 101-98, seven seconds left.
15. Down five, the Thunder calls timeout after two Denver free throws to advance it. KD comes off a pick and smoothly drills a 3. 103-101, four seconds left.
16. After a split at the line, Westbrook has to rush up the floor with under four seconds left and misses a long heave. 104-101, fin.
OK, so absorb all that for one second. The last five minutes which included 16 possessions (18 including a couple offensive rebounds), here’s the usage distribution: nine for Westbrook, five for KD, two for Ibaka. And I think with a couple of Westbrook’s — the give-and-go with Harden, the layup with 16 seconds left and even the two missed shots in the paint — weren’t bad shots at all. Re-watching it, I’d say the two bad ones were the 20-footer with 4:46 left and the desperate 3 with seven ticks remaining. His 3-pointer over Gallo wasn’t the best decision in the world, but with the shot clock up against him, he chose to shoot instead of drive. He probably should’ve attacked and maybe stopped for his good 18-foot jumper, but he went for the big shot.
To me, remove the bad shot with seven seconds left and I’ve got a hard time saying Westbrook did much out of character or that bad the last five minutes. Now the other 43 minutes? Some curious shots. But I think you could make a decent point that what lost the Thunder this game in the closing minutes was more about allowing points than getting them (i.e. the play Westbrook didn’t hustle back).
Again, I’ll say it once more just to really stress it: Westbrook shouldn’t have taken 30 shots in this game. Kelly Dwyer of BDL put it well I thought. “RW can put up 30 shots, I don’t mind even if that means Kevin Durant takes half as many. His offensive potential is good enough to ignore Durant in that way. But Westbrook has to manage it properly, and that just wasn’t happening in Game 4.” Absolutely true. It’s not like Earl Watson went trigger happy here. Russell Westbrook is a really good offensive player.
But in terms of the execution late, I think you pin the dumb 3-pointer with seven seconds left on Westbrook. Other than that, not a lot of complaints from me.
You can watch it here:
http://ellen.warnerbros.com/videos/?autoplay=true&mediaKey=ffc5fa78-e9e4-475d-94fe-121a16bbabb3
"These are Kevin Durant's tennis shoes which take up my whole face."
Skeletor :People on this forum probably don’t care, but Rumble will be on the Ellen Degeneres show tomorrow with Oklahoma native and Emmy and Toney award winner Kristin Chenoworth
Did anyone see this? Good stuff!
As a mascot hater, I have to admit Rumble is pretty awesome.
@ATH
Good article, ATH. Thanks for posting that link. Here's my favorite line: "...for Westbrook to play his perfect game, he would need to exhibit more maturity, experience and patience than typically accompany a 22 year old guard with his enormous talents and scrappy disposition." I think this is sums it up pretty well. Thunder management is asking a lot of Russ, but it's something they have bet very heavily upon his being able to handle. I think Russ will eventually "get it" and we'll have 2 superstars on this team. To the rest of the NBA...you have been warned! LOL
@ATH
That was a really good article, well articulated + original thought = thumbs up.
Sure to be bolted, a nice read:
http://hoopspeak.com/2011/04/derrick-rose-russell-westbrook-and-context/
It looked to me like Russ got pissed off on his first drive to the basket when he got whacked on the face. I think he STAYED pissed off for the rest of the game and he let his anger pull him out of his normal routine. Keep in mind that Presti has tried to specifically draft players who think beyond "me". For that reason, I think Westbrook will learn from his mistakes in the last game and we'll see the "good Russ" tonight. Heck...we may even see "good Russ" on steroids. LOL
New poster here.
I think some of y'all are overreacting and being far too critical.
KD and Russ will be just fine. Their relationship is not in any peril at all. KD on Russ after Game 4: "He's a star too." If you think they can't coexist just because they yelled at each other a little, then you must not have been involved in much team competition in your life, because that kind of thing happens. No reason to be overly dramatic about it.
Russ individually will be just fine as well. Every NBA player has a bad game sometimes, even in the playoffs. Guy has been a stud for us this series, and he has one bad game and some people are acting like the whole world is crashing down.
Also Scott Brooks has been an excellent coach and there's no indication that won't continue. The man turned this team around in no time flat. They play together well, they fight hard, and they are strong minded. That leadership comes from the coach. I'm pretty shocked some people are questioning his ability...
But anyway, just think some of you guys need some more perspective. I will be rooting hard for a Thunder win tonight, and I think it will happen. And then finally we can stop hearing the Nuggets whine.
(Never before have I enjoyed a Jenni Carlson and Berry Trammel article so much in one day, LOL!)
$50 KD shoes after shipping. Use coupon FRIENDS30
http://www.famousfootwear.com/Shopping/ProductDetails.aspx?p=71999&pg=1022604
Skeletor :
Newsok posted video of the press conference with RW, KD, and Brooks yesterday
http://www.newsok.com/thunder-practice-westbrook-point-of-contention/multimedia/video/919975478001
Tramel, "I might have given 6 of them to Durant." As though you could automatically say KD would get 6 more and Russ 6 less. He should have asked a more open ended question such as, "Russ, what was Denver's defense doing down the stretch to deny your options to get the ball to the wing?" Then Westbrook would have had to come up with something better than "Watcha think?"
i have no idea what i'm still doing up.. but just wanted to say that if Good Russ returns tomorrow, this series is over.. and i really believe that all of the media criticism is exactly what he needed to turn his game around. I know that seems counter productive, but he hasn't really had the negative spotlight shined on his game, and sometimes its just what a player needs to see to wake up.. if i did the numbers right, the Thunder are 21-5 when he completes 10 or more assists in a game, and 18-1 at home.. so if he can find the old "drive and dish" game that we miss so much, we'll own Denver in the Thunder Dome tomorrow.. Thunder Up!
...and I meant to include, I love how big a fan Kristin is of the Thunder. She tweets about them every time they're playing, or so my girl friend says.
@Skeletor
That's awesome--- I'm gonna DVR it! I love Rumble and I'm a Kristin Chenoweth fan.
People on this forum probably don't care, but Rumble will be on the Ellen Degeneres show tomorrow with Oklahoma native and Emmy and Toney award winner Kristin Chenoworth
We gotta close the nuggets out like Chicago did Indy tonight. Come out fast and strong and make them try to survive the barrage. They will fold if the crowd is going nuts cause we're hitting shots early. Be aggressive and put them on their heels. Can't wait!!!!
Newsok posted video of the press conference with RW, KD, and Brooks yesterday
http://www.newsok.com/thunder-practice-westbrook-point-of-contention/multimedia/video/919975478001
Wow Kobe dunked all over Okafor right before halftime. Someone uploaded the video in record time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cqRImCQ5Uw&feature=youtu.be
Paul got hacked pretty hard by Bynum but no call..
What's gotten into Ariza?
Not to jump the gun or anything, but can this please happen tomorrow night....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5orI8swuMIY&feature=related
shiki :
KD can con-exist with everyone in this league.Last game proved it again.His selfish teammate had 30 shots but KD got 31pts with 18 shots and gave us a little hope to win that game.
But Russ cannot.If he plays like last game with Kobe or Lebron as his teammate, what would happened in locker room ?
Kobe would sulk and talk some mild crap, before leaving on his own, smoking a cigar, to go sit somewhere alone, and cry about being made to read "Just Shufflin' along" by Phil Jackson. He'd then cut himself while crying "I'm as good as Jordan, damnit" and "Just because I grew up a rich kid in Europe doesn't mean I'm not an "authentic black man". Some teammates would try to console him, but he would blow them off because he considers them "beneath him".
KD can con-exist with everyone in this league.Last game proved it again.His selfish teammate had 30 shots but KD got 31pts with 18 shots and gave us a little hope to win that game.
But Russ cannot.If he plays like last game with Kobe or Lebron as his teammate, what would happened in locker room ?
Speaking of crowds the lakers crowd sucks as usual I'm glad our crowds are nothin like that
Laker nation might explode if they lose this.
Daniel :@Ozarkhick
Ditka.
Ditka...Kielbasa...Da Bears...Ditka...Kielbasa
Nuggs...JR!...Neck Tattoos...JR!....Da Nuggs!
I expect the crowd to be insane tomorrow night. If it's possible for a crowd to not let their team lose, to push them over the top by shear force of their collective will, that's going to be us.
Kobe looks absurdly slow right now. Hornets need to attack him every time down I wouldn't be surprised to see Kobe get a frustration tech in the first half.
@DJ 7
I think we're all forgetting just how big a jump RW made this season. Brooks didn't need to concentrate on this issue last offseason because it wasn't an issue. As has been noted, these sorts of in season adjustments are really hard to make. So, no, we don't know if Brooks can manage the players the way they need to be, but to be fair, they haven't really had an opportunity to try. Meanwhile, it seems like Brooks still has his players' ears and respect, which is super important. The players trust Brooks, and I don't think that should be overlooked.
Thunderman :
It would really really ruin my year if we lost four straight to these guys. There is a first time for everything. I hope we end any hope of that tomorrow night.
!!!! You just commited the second Cardinal Sin!!!!!!
@Ozarkhick
Ditka.
Ariza has been playing out of his mind the last few games
It would really really ruin my year if we lost four straight to these guys. There is a first time for everything. I hope we end any hope of that tomorrow night.
okc baby :
Hmmm..iDK Bulls or Boston
okc baby :
Hmmm..iDK Bulls or Boston
Da' Bulls. Rose's drives to the rim won't look near as pretty with Perk down low and Ibaka headhunting him. A smart Boston team playing with good ball movement afears me more.
Da' Bulls.
Rose won't look nearly as clever driving to the rim with Perk and Ibaka head hunting him
justin :@DJ
7
They can, it just has to be coached into them.
Yeah but like many have said. Can Brooks really do it? i mean the guys been Vanilla all year. The one time he tried to send a message to our players it back-fired and we got blown out. Will Superstar players even with good charecter listen to a pushover? Is it to late to ask Coach K to be our coach? because he did a fabulous job in the Worlds.
I hate how ESPN, just made a "Prediction" of a Bulls vs Magic EFC, Really? and they are confident the Magic will take the Hawks to a 7 game series. Same with the Spurs vs Grizzlies. I'de like to point out, only 8 teams have come back from being down 3-1, and only 14(including the 8 who came back) even the series after being down 3-1.
They still act as if the Nuggets will beat us, weren't they all just saying a game ago we would sweep them, and we shouldn't worry about anything? Nuggets berly beat us after losing 6 straight to us, and now they go and say a ridiculous assumption that the Nuggs will push us to 7.
They like to be stat junkies with Rose, but they won't be with the playoff series?
In Presti we trust. If he stays good. If he doesnt CP3 is right around the corner.
@DJ 7
They can, it just has to be coached into them.
I'm scared guys, because last night that's all i was thinking about. "Can Durant, and Westbrook really co-exist?", Like Justin said, its more of an on-court thing then it is off court. We've seen where Westbrook takes over, and forgets about Durant even though KD is hot, or has a better match-up. Lets just hope Presti, Mo Cheeks, Brooks, and Perkins sit down with the two and tell them how it is. I say Perkins because look where he came from, Boston has 2 of the clutchiest player of all time.
Hmmm..iDK Bulls or Boston
I really want to see super human CP3 again tonight. With Kobe injury, he has a good chance.
That's wood shed. We need the best crowd evah tomorrow night
christian283 :
Best. Title. Ever. And spot-on….
http://www.sbnation.com/nba/2011/4/26/2134227/thunder-vs-nuggets-russell-westbrook-nba-playoffs-2011
That was a good read. Puts things in context. Let's rally and take it to em tomorrow night! Like Chicago is taking Indiana to the wood snood tonight!
Carlos Boozer not earning those dollars, big surprise.
ATL playing their annual playoff stinker
@canuck
I think most people here agree Russ resigns. After that contract, who knows what the league will look like?
anyone else see westbrook bolting to phoenix once nash retires?
There is nothing wrong with being the #2 guy on a great team. Guys like Scottie Pippen, Kevin McHale, James Worthy and others were #2 guys and they are now in the Hall of Fame.
Bryson :
What we’re seeing in Russel Westbrook realizing he is a star. He realizes its no longer just KD’s team, and he has a bigger impact than he though. He has realized what he is.
It's Durant's team. At least, it should be. Pecking orders are important.
@Skeletor
If the CBA stays the same in regard to restricted free agency, Russell won't have much of choice but to re-sign. Someone else signs him to an offer sheet (an offer of a contract) and then we have the right to match (or exceed) that offer and keep his rights. Also, no one can pay him more than us (Bird rights). Again, this could all change this summer.
Sometimes the honey badger gets burned. I for one am not at all surprised by Bad Russ showing up last night. We all knew it was going to happen at some point in the series. Game 4 aside, Westbrook has been excellent in the series. The guy is young and still learning. Hopefully all the media backlash will cause him to use his head more next game.
Here's to the return of Good Russ in Game 5.
What we're seeing in Russel Westbrook realizing he is a star. He realizes its no longer just KD's team, and he has a bigger impact than he though. He has realized what he is.
without*