NBA Playoffs 2017: 5 things we learned from the Rockets beating the Thunder
By Luke Norris
2. Russell Westbrook can’t win
Russell Westbrook isn’t the problem. I’m sure there are plenty of you yelling at your screen right now or typing in big, bold letters, but it’s the truth. And I’m sure there are some of you who look at that headline and think I mean that he isn’t a winner and can’t be the leader of a team and you’d be wrong. Russell Westbrook is the only reason that the Oklahoma City Thunder were in this series to begin with and the only real reason that they were able to compete at all against the Houston Rockets.
The problem is that no matter what he does on the floor, he can’t win with people like me that write about him for a living. If he plays well, we’re going to say that he put the team on his back and carried them to victory. But if he doesn’t play well, especially if he struggles in the fourth quarter like he did in Game 5, he’s going to get blasted. That’s the nature of the beast and just what comes with being the leader of a team and one of the best players in the world.
Russell Westbrook really was unbelievable in this series. Yes, he did take a lot of shots and some questionable ones at that but to whom was he supposed to give the ball in clutch situations? Victor Oladipo? Steven Adams? Alex Abrines? Come on, people. Get real. Kevin Durant is no longer on this team and Westbrook had no choice but to try and win the game himself. It’s very similar to what LeBron James dealt with years ago. If he passes the ball, he’s afraid to be the leader. But if he takes the big shot and misses, he’s not a clutch player. There’s no way to win.
Russell Westbrook just averaged a triple-double over the course of an entire season and again in a playoff series, falling just one assist shy of a fourth consecutive won in Game 5. Are you really going to say that the guy who just put up 36.2 points, 11.2 assists and 11.4 rebounds per game is the reason the Thunder didn’t win this series? Nonsense. In the 46 minutes Westbrook wasn’t on the court, Oklahoma City was outscored by 58 points, 137-79. If we’re counting, the Rockets outscored the Thunder by 43 points over the course of the five games. And if you want to get a little more technical, they were outscored by 51.3 points per 100 possessions when Westbrook sat as opposed to outscoring Houston by 4.9 points per 100 possessions when he didn’t. The Thunder certainly have plenty of issues to address in the offseason but Russell Westbrook isn’t one of them.