Monday night's win over the Hornets showed why Russell Westbrook, not Kevin Durant, has been the best player on the Oklahoma City Thunder this season. Also, we discuss why Miami's problems aren't solved by one win over Washington.
Here's a controversial, yet true statement: Russell Westbrook, not Kevin Durant has been the best player on the Oklahoma City Thunder this year. Coming into Monday night's game against the Hornets, Westbrook was putting up the following stat line:
23.8 points, 8.4 assists and 5.1 rebounds per game
A PER of 25.9
A true shooting percentage (which encompasses threes and free throws) of 56 percent, which is insanely high for a guard ending over 30 percent of his team's possessions.
An assist percentage (i.e. the percentage of team possessions that end with a Westbrook assist when he's on the floor) of 42.4 percent
A turnover percentage of just 14.7, which is also excellent for a guy using as many possessions as he has.
Elite defense
Then, he outplayed Chris Paul down the stretch, igniting the Thunder on a 13-0 late fourth-quarter run to steal a game the Hornets led throughout. Down the stretch, it was Durant deferring to Westbrook, not the other way around. He's become that difficult to stop off the dribble. Just ask Paul, who got completely turned around on this crossover.
Westbrook has always been incredibly athletic, because of his ability to jump off one foot and two feet equally well. But this is the first time when he's really figured out how to use that athleticism in non-transition settings. Even last year, he wasn't a very good half-court player. Teams would go under ball screens and force him to shoot mid-range jumpers, which he gladly accepted. The Thunder had to run specific pick and roll plays for him, limiting his options for the purposes of keeping things simple.
But in an offseason, Westbrook has learned how to use his speed effectively. Now, he sees the entire floor when he comes off a pick. Now, he's able to lull you to sleep and then explode to the rim. He even showed some three-point range in this game, which obviously makes his driving game even more dangerous. My favorite play of the game happened early in the second quarter, right after Westbrook checked back into the game. He came off a high pick, where normally, he'd pull up or try to make a play for himself. This time, however, he knew James Harden was cutting in from the weakside, and threw him a lob that he slammed down easily. That kind of court sense to see Harden out of the corner of his eye and know he was going to cut to the rim is something Westbrook has developed over the past couple years.
The scary thing is that Westbrook can still get better. He still isn't great at getting the ball to his teammates in good scoring spots, particularly in isolation situations. You can't really blame Westbrook too much for the Thunder's third-quarter woes - the rest of their team just didn't hit shots or move well off the ball -- but Westbrook still could have been better in setting those guys up. He also doesn't need to shoot so many pull-up jumpers, because teams aren't giving him that shot consistently this year. Once he makes those improvements: watch out.
The negative byproduct is that Kevin Durant is struggling a bit. He was only 7-22 from the field, though he did score 26 points by virtue of getting to the free-throw line. It seems like he's having trouble finding his rhythm with Westbrook playing so well, and teams are forcing him into tough shots by crowding him and taking advantage of his struggles handling the ball due to his size. I don't think it's anything two special young players can't figure out, but it's worth watching going forward. The good news is that Durant chipped in with 11 rebounds and great defense on David West.
The Hornets really lack shot creators when they need them most. They kept pounding the ball to West late in the fourth quarter, and West kept coming up short. It's really not his fault though -- he's the kind of player that is best in quarters 1-3 and could use some help late. The fact is that New Orleans really needs another shot creator in their finishing lineup. Chris Paul doesn't have enough of a scorers mentality, and Marco Belinelli and Trevor Ariza are spot-up guys. New Orleans also lacks guys who can get to the free-throw line -- they shot just 17 all game, and were particularly bad trying to drive against Oklahoma City's interior defense late in the game. They threw away most of their trade assets to get Jarrett Jack and Ariza, so they likely have no recourse on the trade market. Maybe it's time to dust off Marcus Thornton from the bench.
All in all, an intense, but sloppy game. Both teams were feeling the effect of the second game of a back-to-back.
Play of the Game: Chris Paul is really fast, so anytime someone catches him from behind, it merits being the play of the game. Wow, Jeff Green.
For perspective, here's how much distance he needed to make up.
From the blogs: At the Hive's recap of the Hornets' recent offensive woes is a must-read.
Miami Heat 105, Washington Wizards 94
Congratulations, Miami. You just beat a team that is winless on the road this year and was playing without their star point guard (John Wall), two rotation players (Al Thornton and Yi Jianlian) and with their starting center visibly hampered by a back injury (JaVale McGee). In other words, you did what you were supposed to do. Let's throw a parade.
Okay, so I'm a little bitter as a Wizards fan. The good news for Miami is that they got their Big 3 clicking at the same time. LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh combined for 76 of Miami's 105 points, mostly because they were actually aggressive for once. The three combined for 35 free-throw attempts all by themselves, as they were able to get into the paint pretty easily. Thus far this year, those three guys have settled for jump shots far too often. The Wizards' interior defense is porous, and the referees helped Miami out with some favorable calls, but that's a good sign for the Heat.
The Wizards just don't have that capability. Andray Blatche had his best game of the year, with 26 points on 19 shots, but he disappeared in the second half. Gilbert Arenas was way off with his shot too often, and while he got 23 points, he shot just two free throws and only two shots at the rim (though I do think he continues to not get calls he once got). Nick Young's shot was off, save for a brief stretch in the third quarter, and when that happens, you'll get a lot of 4-15 nights. Finally, Kirk Hinrich was just abysmal, scoring just five points in 36 minutes. Last year, Hinrich was better than his individual stats indicated. This year, he's worse. His old habit in Chicago of overdribbling without a purpose -- something that disappeared when Derrick Rose got drafted -- has returned, and he's not providing nearly as much defensively as he did in the past. Going forward, Flip Saunders would do well to limit his minutes to the 24-28 range.
Ultimately, the Wizards just lost their poise. Hilton Armstrong's shove on Joel Anthony was pretty blatant and worthy of an ejection. In the fourth quarter, Hinrich got into it with James Jones when Jones guarded him closely defensively. I think they got frustrated that they weren't getting calls when they drove and packed it in, at least until the very end. At some point, the Wizards need to understand that drawing fouls is a skill that you build up through practice, not just something that you can do by simply taking it to the rim.
As for Miami, don't jump to any conclusions. They were supposed to do this. I'm going to wait and see if James, Wade and Bosh show that same kind of aggression against a decent team before I am convinced their on-court mindset is good enough to win consistently.
Play of the Game: Here's LeBron playing like LeBron.
Dallas Mavericks 101, Houston Rockets 91: Playing at small forward, alongside former teammate DeShawn Stevenson in the starting lineup, has really ignited Caron Butler. After scoring 23 against Miami on Saturday, Butler responded with 19 in 27 minutes against Houston, helping Dallas to blow open a close game in the third quarter.
Utah Jazz 109, Milwaukee Bucks 87: The Bucks tried, but there's no way they will even compete with Utah on the road without Andrew Bogut in the lineup. Naturally, Al Jefferson lit them up for 24 points, 11 rebounds and four blocked shots.
AND FINALLY
Do you want to see a fight between two skinny big men? Of course you do! Here's the Armstrong-Juwan Howard scrum, via @Jose3030 and SB Nation D.C.
I'm the founder of SB Nation's Wizards blog Bullets Forever, where I am prone to composing love letters to John Wall, passionate defenses of Gilbert Arenas and fourth-grade report cards of Andray... Read full bio
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