5 reasons the Oklahoma City Thunder can win the NBA Championship
2. Super Russell
In one of the most Westbrookian moves of all time, Russell pulled down 20 boards on the last night of the season to secure a triple double for the second straight year. All rebound stealing and stat padding jokes aside, Westbrook has run rampant since mid-December. After a poor start to the season, he’s turned things around and looks like a top seven or eight player once more. That’s a huge deal for any team in a playoff series. Westbrook has the ability to be the best player on the floor on any given night.
He’ll need to play exceptionally well for OKC to overcome a well-coached Utah team that won’t beat itself. The Jazz execute their schemes expertly on both sides of the ball. They also they have a few sturdy, clever backcourt defenders to throw throw at Westbrook. Rubio, Exum and Mitchell will all get a crack at him. The presence of Rudy Gobert in the paint is be critical as well. If Gobert can really deter Westbrook from getting into the teeth of the defense and turn him into a jump shooter, the Thunder are going to struggle scoring. Matters won’t get any easier if the Thunder make rounds two or three. Westbrook could have guys like Chris Paul and Klay Thompson on him for long portions of game time.
But we’ve Russell run rampant in the playoffs before. Of course I’m not referring to last season when we saw him average 37 points per game last year on 30 shot attempts per game! If he can play with some control, particularly on defense, he has the ability to eviscerate teams. Westbrook will need to find proper balance between producing his own shots and getting others involved. Russell can create his own shot almost at will; the mid-range pull-up will almost always be available to him. Getting to the rim consistently is of the utmost importance for him. Russell needs to claim the paint as his own for the Thunder to really get going on offense. The good news for OKC is that he’s more than capable of doing that.
Finally, although Westbrook’s game is often prone to devolving into stagnant hero ball, we’ve seen him pull off some incredible things in late game situations. Perhaps the most underrated facet of Westbrook’s MVP campaign last year was his absurdly high level of play in crunch time. During the 2016-2017 regular season he willed the Thunder to victory countless times; he was the primary reason for them outperforming their mediocre point differential. If assassin Westbrook shows up, the league could be in trouble.