Yes and one guy was playing against a defense that was specifically designed to stop him and the other was playing against a defense designed to stop his teammate.
That's an important fact when playing the Thunder, if you can keep the ball in Westbrook's hands and out of Durant's, you've already won.
You mean to tell me Westbrook would struggle v. the Blazers defense? That's just laughable. The defense Harden faced v. the Blazers were as basic "guarding a star" type of defense as it gets. Harden just missed shots, and missed a ton of them. And refs didn't bail him out. He averaged 9 3s for god sakes. Spurs put Leonard on Westbrook the last 3 games of the series for a reason. And Tony Allen was on Westbrook also during the Memphis series for stretches. The guy is just a beast. The only thing Westbrook has to change is be more in control throughout a game.
That the ball being in Westbrook's hands is a victory for the defense, it's and even bigger victory if you can get him to shoot the ball himself. Pretty obvious, nothing ground breaking.
They lost in the conference Finals to the best team with the best record. Maybe that team was just better? Have you thought of that? Because OKC won 2 rounds allowing Westbrook to do whatever he wants.
Why do you think the Spurs switched Kawhi Leonard AWAY from KD on to WB? Was it to "keep the ball in Westbrook's hands and out of Durant's"? The worship of KD and the blaming of WB for everything has reached absurdity.
I think it's pretty stupid to say defenses aren't built to stop Westbrook. I mean look at what San Antonio did. They put Kawhi Leonard on Westbrook. Not KD.
Someone still trying to present data to show how good Harden is. Love, Harden and even Irving are group of players with good individual stats but contribute not so much to their teams. And they are not able to lead their teams at critical moments. WB is a warrior instead.
The defense that both OKC and Portland played against us in the playoffs was anything but basic. That defense's primary purpose was to prevent Harden from being able to get to the rim. Anytime Harden tried to drive his defender had two big men sitting in the paint behind them. Why do you think he shot so many 3 point shots? It had nothing to do with referees. The fact is that he didn't drive the ball much at all. When he doesn't get to the rim then he won't draw fouls at the same rate. BTW Harden only shot 0.8 fewer FT/game in the playoffs than he did in the regular season. Considering that he was driving much less and shooting more perimeter shots he actually got a lot of calls.
He averaged 8 3s and 8 FTA in the regular season v. Portland too. So those were basically THE SAME as his playoff stats. Look at the end of the day, he settled and missed shots. That's why he played poorly. The excuses for James is crazy. This is no Jordan rules or Lebron's rules or defenses Kobe or the greatest players faced. You make it seem like this is Harden's first 6 games as a primary offensive weapon. The dude likes to jack up shots. When they go in, he looks pretty. When they don't, he settles even more.
I think what KD/WB has is a Shaq-Kobe dynamic with better chemistry. Both are alphas and can dominate games with ease. Both are top 3-5 players. But as we saw with Lebron/Wade, one (or both) need to start posting up to open up the floor game for one another and their teammates.
