ClutchFans Game Thread: Thunder @ Rockets 4/19/2017 (Playoffs Round 1, Game 2)

Russ took almost as much as those 54 shots. lool

 

Must be the depth perception

 

Harden +bev=PB and James

 

But Westbrook's teammates did show up!

 

Yeah, he got in early in the fourth against our bench (half of it let's say) and they still had negative results...i think he was definitely tired late in the fourth, but he took soo many bad shots...

Lol, same shots...in triple ot

 

Ryan Anderson is ASS bruh

 

We need to paint less red.

 

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The same guys he was passing to when he got his 10th assist and they were ahead?

 

Out of the players who hit a field goal for the Thunder(8 players), only Westbrook and Oladipo shot under 50 percent

 

Westbrook had 6 teammates shoot 50% or better tonight. PASS THE BALL BROADIE LOL

 

wat if Jimmy took 43 shots? U don't think he can score 50 pts? Jimmy is no chucker, west is amazing, but he's too selfish at times. That's why hardens team won. To me a W > Stats
Consider how bad Ariza and ryno played tonight .

 

Yeah, but they need to find a way to fix this somehow, we cannot play every home game with him not able to make shots

 

I'm gonna need video evidence of that because there's no way a paid analyst said something that dumb. He played a perfect game in what way?

 

Well, that's not as bad as i though (@chenjy9 ) tbh, but still...

 

RUN AS ONE = W

 

Yeah, because unlike Westbrook, Harden lets his teammates play the game with him.

 

If we had 2-3 less shooters, I would be more concerned and inclined to agree. That said, we DO have Lou Williams, Gordon, Beverley, and Ariza. All 4 of them have the ability to knock down threes on at least a respectable rate and all 4 have the ability to get stupid hot and any point in the game. Chances are, when Ryno gets hot, 2-3 of Gordon/Lou/Bev/Ariza will be ice cold. That's what happens with shooters; they have situations where they get hot or cold. Just because we have some really good shooters, doesn't mean them all getting hot together is going to be a common occurrence. Remember, 3pt shooting teams have high variance. This is why we also why have Harden Capela PnR for when we aren't hitting our 3's.

 

The thing is, you cant look at it in a vacuum like that. It's hard for anyone to stand around on offense while one player jacks up shot after shot and then expect them to seamlessly fit into the offense when westbrook gets tired or needs to pass. And that's just in the context of one game.

Play westbrook hero ball all season? Teammates will actually regress. Consider this thought exercise - before the season, if you asked a mildly-informed NBA observer who the best player on either OKC or Houston was, outside of Harden and Westbrook, most people would say Oladipo, Kanter, or maybe Adams or Eric Gordon. Now the narrative is that Westbrook's teammates are all trash and couldn't beat a high school team. It's because Westbrook didn't make them better throughout the season - he made them worse. Harden made and continues to make his teammates better.