Westbrook Doing More Harm than Good?
(Russell) Westbrook is that good, and Westbrook is that bad, and this column is absolutely that fair. The easy thing to write, the thing that would appease Thunder fans and lots of others, would be to celebrate Westbrook’s final line of 23 points and 12 assists and to note that he pushed, prodded and ultimately produced a 108-103 victory against the Spurs on Monday night — giving the Thunder a 3-2 series edge with the chance to finish off San Antonio at home in Game 6.
That would be easy, but sorry. Can’t do that. Because it wouldn’t be honest. What would be honest? To note that there are two sides to this game, this story, this player. There is good, and there is bad, and both sides were on display in high definition in Game 5.
And the good was so very good. Look, 23 points and 12 assists? That’s a great game. That’s beautiful. That’s a point guard who scored and created, and look at the final score. That’s a point guard who won.
But the bad was so very bad. Westbrook needed 24 shots to get those 23 points. He was 9 of 24 from the floor, 0 of 5 on 3-pointers. He had six turnovers. Look, 9-of-24 shooting and six turnovers? That’s a bad game. That’s ugly. That’s a point guard who dominated the ball, taking (and missing) all those shots while NBA scoring leader Kevin Durant and Sixth Man of the Year James Harden were scoring much more efficiently, with 47 combined points on 30 shots. A better point guard would have taken the ball out of his own hands and given it more to Durant and Harden.
Loading ...
