https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id...brook-looks-explosive-ever-thursday-scrimmage The Houston Rockets held an intrasquad scrimmage Thursday to get All-Star guard Russell Westbrook his first full-speed, 5-on-5 action since he was diagnosed with a strained right quadriceps, sources told ESPN. "He looked as explosive as ever," a source said. Barring any setbacks, there's an expectation that Westbrook will be ready to return for Game 5 with the playoffs resuming Saturday. "He'll go through practice today, and if things are normal, we expect him to be ready to go," Rockets coach Mike D'Antoni said before Friday's practice. "I'm sure he'll have time restraints. We have not talked about that at all, and that won't be discussed until tomorrow. I'm planning on it, but you never know, and Russ will be hard to hold down. I'm sure he's anxious and ready to roll." Westbrook didn't have much to say about his injury -- "Just taking it one day at a time" -- but spoke passionately on the action the league is taking to address voter suppression and push for police reform. "I'm excited to play, but I'm more excited that we're playing for a cause," Westbrook said. "Playing [because] we're in agreeance to be able to make sure there's action. For guys like myself, and I'm pretty sure guys around the league, we play and we have our names on the back of our jerseys and we have our messaging on the backs of our jersey, and that means something. It's not just something that we put on there for fun or for kicks and giggles, but it actually means something. "I personally take action and take responsibility in being an African American athlete, being a Black man in this society, having a son of my own and having other kids look up to me from my neighborhood and around the world. That's what I'm most excited about moving forward. Obviously, basketball is our platform. It's something that I love and embrace to do, but to me, [fighting for social justice] is the most important reason why we are actually even coming back to play. Because if there wasn't any agreeance or there was no action moving towards some of the things we talked about as players, and me personally, I wouldn't be playing." Westbrook missed the first four games of the Rockets' series against the Oklahoma City Thunder, his former team. With the series tied, he planned to test the quadriceps pregame in an attempt to play in Game 5 Wednesday, but NBA games were postponed because of players protesting racial injustice. Westbrook, a late arrival to the NBA's Walt Disney World Resort campus in Florida because he tested positive for COVID-19, felt soreness in his right quadriceps after the Rockets' loss to the Portland Trail Blazers on Aug. 4. He sat out the next two games because of what the team originally deemed a right quad contusion. Westbrook played 28 minutes in Houston's Aug. 11 loss to the San Antonio Spurs, recording 20 points, 5 rebounds and 6 assists. The Rockets announced the next day that an MRI had revealed that Westbrook had a strained muscle in his quad, and he has not played since. Westbrook averaged 27.2 points, 7.9 rebounds and 7.0 assists per game in his first season with the Rockets. Westbrook joined Houston in a blockbuster trade with Oklahoma City last summer.
Yeah, lets hope he is at his best shape, because the way this team is shooting........ we will need his drives.
Russ is the final piece to the puzzle. The time is now. Best thing about this might be that Gordon might be benched but MDA seems to like Eric more then evenJames so he will probably continue playing him as a starter
Once the Bricklayers go cold and you know they will, Russ provides a different avenue on offense to get easy buckets with his dribble penetration and ability to push the pace. This should help Harden and give us more variety on offense.
Why are people hating on eg?? Dude has been balling and seems like he is about to catch heat. We need him where we are trying to go.
Seems like your typical statement when someone's injured. He'll probably not be the same, at least for the first game, but I'll let myself be pleasantly surprised if he is as explosive.
he shot well last game and is our probably our best defender....i don't understand it either....we need him in there. has been explosive driving.
lol at the driving... if he would only stick to the driving... hed be close to MVP....but no way Pedro... some kids at my local playground have more maturity and greater bb iq than him
yea he does screw up handling the ball at times, but didn't we win game 1 and 2 with him driving? we need his defense. he has to play. i'm sorry that you don't like him. i'm a big fan. we're not going anywhere without his A game anyways, so we need to play him so he can get his rhythm back?
Really excited about seeing fully healthy Russ. He's going to inject some much needed pace to the game.
LOL i do like his drives he juts need to do it more... and i disagree we going nowhere without his a game... james can win you championship alone with solid role players...eric ruined a lot of what james built...we dont need eric gordon to win it all...
