A snapshot of Westbrook's overrated (and Harden's underrated) defense

NOTE 1: I know youtube highlights are not the greatest quantitative ways to prove anything, but there is no greater snapshot of why Westbrook's defense is so atrocious (yes, worse than Harden's) than these couple key plays in the final moments of game two.

NOTE 2: I'm not saying Harden's defense has been great this year (though he's had his moments... and in 2015, I think he showed us he can be a consistently net positive defender when he feels like it).

Now without further ado:

Exhibit A: With just over two mins left, and the Thunder down two, they desperately need a stop. Thankfully, Westbrook is well aware, and he always plays with so much FIRE! Especially in the 4th! Look at this suffocating close-out on Patrick Beverley's 3-pt attempt. Just look at that FIRE:


Exhibit B: With the Rockets up 8 with about 90 seconds left, they probably have it in the bag. James "Haren" never plays D, anyways, but now he has a pass to take a play or so off. Dipo's gonna drain this whlie Harden just takes a nap, no biggie:


Westbrook gotta get dem rebounds, doe! Doesn't matter if he makes Bev look like Stephen Curry in the process!

And to think this guy is about to take Harden's MVP... inb4jinx

 

If you're guarding Beverley on the baseline (who has been shooting well), it's not your responsibility to help off of him on that play... especially that early. He was never within any respectable distance of Bev, and then he never even tried to close out. He left that to a teammate who was even further away. Maybe if Harden just beat his man and was about to get a layup, yeah, help out. Otherwise, OKC's whole strategy was to stick to shooters... unless your'e Westbrook, then go for rebounds.

His mentality may have been to help, but it was still the wrong way to cover that play, and a pretty half-assed attempt at help to begin with.

And I didn't see that thread. Plus I posted the vids with links to specific points in time. And I feel like this is worth discussing outside the context of that thread, in any case.



Also, it needs to be made clear that this is not new.

 

The Westbrook v Harden thing is the most interesting thing about this series. Everything we discuss on this board is bull**** anyways.

 

Lol, I edited my post because I didn't feel like being a dick in response to you being a dick. My apologies. But yeah, this is an interesting topic to me. If you disagree, there are plenty of other threads you can post in instead. Anyways, this is the last of my participation in this discussion.

 

Even if this is true, as I said, it was an extremely half-assed attempt at help. He could have at least actually covered Nene or his passing lane, but he didn't. He just stood around watching. If Nene caught that pass, Westbrook would have been able to do nothing but foul, and very likely give up an and-1 given his size [and laziness]. Then as the pass was made to Bev, he made absolutely zero attempt to close out. Plus, Nene was close enough to Gordon that Adams could have in theory recovered (though his five fouls were a problem, admittedly). Westbrook put himself in a position that no matter what Gordon did, he was not going to be able to properly contest a Rockets' scoring attempt.

So you are wrong. Period. That's a fact. Exit thread.

See? I can play that game, too.

 

This isn't a family dinner. Cursing doesn't mean I'm not calm... Was just stating a fact.

He gave a couple Fs in that 4th as the game was on the line. Unlike Westbrook who only knew how to shoot.