I have really tried to be objective to the media when they talk about Westbrook and other MVP candidates this year. Yet, I am convinced that many were wowed this year by his triple-dub season and were sold when he had multiple triple-dubs to end the season. So much so that they HAVE to defend their boy now. Turned on ESPN for a second when they were talking about the game today and all I heard was that Westbrook went 4-18 in the 4th because he HAD TO. That nobody else on the OKC team wanted the ball and it was up to Westbrook to try and save the day. WTF! No mention of how Harden still managed to control the pace of the game despite being outplayed early or his 35 points. When the Rockets win, they are suppose to. When the Thunder lose it's because the players around Westbrook didn't want to play. REALLY!? After the first half they said Harden had 16 points but it was a bad 16 points.
For real.. Espn aint been the same since Stuart passed and Tom Jackson left. No reason to watch except look at the women. Its horrible.
I do believe that WB has to play out of his mind to win but you could see that WB 4th quarter coming in the 3rd.. When he was pissed when they lost the 13 pt lead quickly when he sat down. You knew he had to take it upon himself to "finish the job" ... They given him a pass this year because of Durant. THE MEDIA will turn on him next year
Many of their best offensive players were sitting on the bench because Harden destroys their team so much they cannot play them. So another thing to keep in mind Harden destroys a team so thoroughly they need all their best defensive players to try to sow him down (while failing) and Westbrook gets these stats against a team playing some terrible defensive players (Andersen and Williams). Harden knows how to exploit weakness in players. Westbrook only knows how to jump high and play with energy. That being Said I do not understand people saying players Like Gibson, Adams and Oladipo are bad offensive players. Adams would be a beast if he played with Harden.
Agree with the OP. Westbrook came just 1 brick short of his record of 27 missed field goals (this season against Suns 17-44), just 2 bricks short of Kobe's all-time brick-laying fest. That's some Bob the Builder stuff. I don't get how reasonable people think he is anywhere close to being a top-10 player, let alone an MVP. His shot selection gives his team a huge disadvantage. He is actively hurting his team. I mean Steve fricking Adams (hailed as best center in the league last year by Zach Lowe) had just 3 FGAs yesterday. How's that even possible? Adams would be averaging 17 points a game next to Harden. Look at what Harden has done with Capela, Harrell and Nene; the two young ones are having career years, while Nene has returned from the dead. Harden has figured that stuff out, Westbrook doesn't even seem to care.
Exactly. Through two games Westbrook has scored exactly one more point than Harden while shooting 21 more FGs. You can not tell me that Westbrook couldn't have passed the ball to some open shooters in the 4th quarter when he was shooting off balance contested jumpers while being double teamed at times.
Nonsense, he's absolutely been the Rockets MVP this postseason. He knows that his teams are 12-22 in his career when he takes 30 or more shots in a game and he just kept ignoring his teammates and chucking the ball in the general direction of the backboard. He did that for us. If he doesn't take 18 shots in the 4th quarter, the Thunder win. I don't think we can underestimate how important he's been to the Rockets success thus far this postseason.
Just found another interesting tidbit: His 14 missed shots last night in the 4th quarter are the most by any player in the last 20 playoffs. That's 300 series or at least 1500 games (assuming minimum of 5 games average per series). That's historic. Take that for data.
What's it matter though? ESPN panders to the casuals and this is the kinda crap that the least knowledgeable NBA fans like. The media doesn't affect the product on the court and at this point we should just stop caring what they say.
Charles, Kenny and Shaq letting Westbrook have it after that shameful 4th quarter performance. Oh yeah, media conspiracy.
The Russell Westbrook hate is also out of control here. Yeah, I believe Harden had the better season, is the better player and more deserving to win MVP this year. But let's not pretend like Westbrook would not be deserving as well. I know, he takes a lot of shots and is a stat w**** who steals rebounds and stuff like that. But how many times did a player average a triple double over the course of a season with more than 30 ppg? How many players would be capable of this in the league right now? Maybe 3? And he didn't do it for a losing team, but for a playoff team - and after KD many people didn't have too much faith in the Thunder. You can't deny they would have been near the bottom of the conference without RW. So again, to me Harden is the better player that also did more to make his team win and thus is more deserving to win MVP. But if Russel gets it, I would totally understand why. And in the end, as Rockets fan, let's just enjoy his 50+ points games - as long as Harden helps us win. I rather see that, than a balanced team effort win by the Thunder...
