Russell Westbrook – The Catalyst for Oklahoma City Thunder’s Game 3 Loss: NBA Feature
Russell Westbrook and his selfish offense has been the cause of many Thunder defeats throughout the season, but at this stage, when Kevin Durant has put the Oklahoma City franchise at the verge of its first ever NBA title, it has
become frustrating.
On Sunday night, in the Game 3 of the NBA Finals against the Miami Heat, it was a mindless sequence of plays for the OKC point guard in the third quarter that brought the Eastern Conference giants back into the game and from there
on, they never looked back.
After an even first half, Durant paced the Thunder to a 14-2 run early in the third quarter and it seemed that the visitors will have yet another blow out third quarter enroute to a 2-1 lead.
However, Westbrook was there to spoil it all.
It all started with 6:23 remaining in the third quarter and OKC leading by 60-51 when Westbrook grabbed a rebound on a miss from Mario Chalmers and rushed back towards Miami’s rim. The one guard lost the ball to Chalmers and Wade
slammed the ball home to make it seven-point game.
On the next possession, it was all Westbrook again – nobody else even touched the ball – and the result was a missed three pointer. On the resulting Miami trip Wade sold Durant, who was handed over his fourth personal foul.
Scott Brooks had no other option but to pull KD out of the game. Wade split the pair of free throws to reduce the deficit to six.
22 seconds later, Westbrook missed a layup and then after Chalmers missed a three for Miami, OKC’s point guard committed an offensive foul. That proved enough for Brooks and he took Westbrook out.
“Russell had a bad stretch of about three or four bad possessions,” Thunder coach Scott Brooks said after the game. “I took him out to kind of calm him down and put him right back in the game (at the start of the fourth quarter).”
On the next possession Westbrook’s replacement Derek Fisher made a four point play to open a 10 point lead, but without Durant and Westbrook on the floor, Miami gradually took over and by the time the third period ended, they had evaporated a 10 point deficit
to lead by 69-67.
Westbrook came back in the fourth quarter and with 1:30 to go; he scored a pull up jumper to bring OKC at 85-86. However he missed two open three pointers in the clutch, the first one of which could have tied the game, and OKC
eventually lost. He ended the night with 19 points on 8-of-18 shooting from the floor and got to the foul line only twice.
“That’s NBA basketball,” Brooks added after the game. “You’ve got to deal with it. You’ve got to move on from it. You’ve got to get better from it.”
But, the fact is that OKC cannot move on like that in these finals. If they continue to do so, the knockout might be only two games away.
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