tough 3s? see for yourself. Russ made some tough mid range shots, but most of his 3s were wide open, uncontested.
i watched the entire game. please point out which 3's were wide open uncontested while not being tough 3's. so many of those 3's are actually bad shots especially for WB. he was just hitting last night. relax. don't act like WB is extremely easy to guard when it's the complete opposite.
Why don't you see the highlights and tell me which ones were properly contested ? I see one, freakin' one out of 8 threes that Russ made were contested.
i actually see none of what you claim to be "wide open uncontested". maybe you're definition is different apparently. I don't see any 3s where WB is just gathering himself without anyone in front of him. the closest I see is actually 2 of the 3's where EG gets picked and dekker is forced into deciding to overplay on the 3 or not. That's a scheme based decision in those instances, not lazy defense. something they decide to alter or not as the game goes on. wide open uncontested are the 3's that guys like beverley, dekker, ariza get from harden.
My definition of wide open is nobody putting hands in your face while shooting. At least freakin' jump with your hands up, jesuz. And guess what happened in the 4Q when we finally decided to take Westbrick's 3s seriously, contested them as against any other shooters in this league? He began to miss some shots. Wow, what a coincidence.
lol i hope you realize you can't always jump with your hands up to anticipate what the best players in the world do. like i said stop acting like it's extremely easy to guard WB. For the record, if I'm developing a defensive game plan I too would rather WB jack up 3s all day long over everything else he does. Sure he'll make shots because he's a crazy talent but you play the %'s and those say he sucks as a shooter. They got the W. relax man it's friday
I'm saying just treat Westbrick as you would treat any other shooters in this league. There was a clear difference between how our defenders responded to Westbrick's 3s compared to how they usually defend other shooters. Stop thinking Westbrick as if he's some kind of Black Rubio; even the guys over at TNT pointed out that Russ has dramatically improved his shooting this year, yet I still see some teams (including us) playing lazy perimeter defense against him. That's a mistake. I just absolutely refuse to believe that Russ could have made 8 threes in a game if we treated him as a normal 35% outside shooter. We didn't, and that's when all hell broke lose.
that's the thing though he's not a shooter, not at all haha. he's a premier player in the league who can kill you in so many different ways that you have to respect but his #1 weakness is his 3 pt shooting. let the TNT guys do what they do in the studio. They're not the ones out on the floor.
His 3PT shooting is way better than you suggest. You still think Westbrick is a black version of Rubio, keep treating him that way, next time he will make 10 3s against us. His percentage is low because teams have figured out that they actually have to contest his shots to make them more difficult to go in. When they don't, like us in that last game, Westbrick can make several 3s in a single game. I've seen this happen too many times this season to conclude that he's a bad outside shooter. He isn't, Russ is almost near average at this point.
Barkley doesn't "hate" the Rockets. He's always given them respect when he felt they deserved it. In 2008 I remember him making the comment about how scary the Rockets were when TMac and Yao were both on their game. 2yrs ago he said that he still thought The Rockets were going to beat the Clippers in the Conference Semi's even though we were down 3-1 in the series and everyone else had written us off. This year he's said a lot of good things about us. He's just Barkley being Barkley.
i don't even have to look and I can probably says he's probably a 30% shooter. I know he's been in the 20%s in recent years. that is in no way good enough to where it warrants a player to jack up that many 3's. I'll glady take WB putting up atleast 10 3's, again cause the %'s say hell make at most 3 or less lol. you can stick to your belief that WB is this shooter if you want to. there's nothing that should make anyone believe that. I loved it especially at the end of the game when WB was jacking horrible long shots even 3s trying to win the game. That's exactly what I want. Take it for what it's worth. TGIF
It's 33%, and I would categorize that as below average, not horrible. And even that's misleading because it's not 33% when left wide open, these days most teams actually take Russ' 3PT shooting seriously and contest his shots. Again, treat him like a black Rubio like we did in the last game, and you will pay a steep price.
I don't really care that Barkley and Co are starting to back Harden for MVP, Harden's shown that he's willing to trust his team mates and was thrust into a position where he was forced to be a PG not a ball dominant SG who can pass. The two biggest reasons why Harden edges Westbrook are: The Rockets have a better record than the Thunder and Harden's beard (no not really, but its better than Westbrook's choice in clothes pregame). The only way Westbrook wins the MVP this season is if he keeps his insane production with averaging a triple double > 70-72 games and his team finishes somewhere in the top 3 of the Western Conference. Also ESPN/NBA can sell and market Westbrook because of his stats over Harden (who's slowly regaining the "respect" from the media for his lack of defensive effort for the past season or so). If the Rockets finish with the 2nd seed overtaking the Spurs, I can see Harden having a better shot at winning the regular season MVP. Either way I don't really care as long as the Rockets squad is healthy and running effectively come playoffs. Finals MVP >> Regular season MVP.
Anyone seen the Thunder's remaining schedule this month? Denver @Chicago Memphis @Minnesota @Sacramento @LA Clippers @GOLDEN State @Utah @New Orleans Dallas @Cleveland @San Antonio I could easily see them losing 8 of those games. If they do, they'll be 25-24 heading into February. Unless the Rockets stumble badly this month(their schedule is pretty tough as well), they'll be way ahead of OKC in the standings. That'll give Harden a big advantage in the MVP race.
