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and at the same time one of the biggest keys to the heat's success?

durant will get his points no matter what you do so the heat are forced to live with that like the celtics did with bron..but westbrook is the guy the heat really have to worry about because there's no one to guard him. he blows past wade on every play. i breathe a sigh of relief whenever he settles for a jumper because I know he can get by whoever's guarding him at any time. there's no one that can carve up the heat's D like this guy. but of course westbrook is also a guy that can also shoot his team out of games, so in that way a struggling westbrook can really help the heat.

I can't think of another player that helps and hurts his team as much as this guy. but if he ever gets hot, watch out. the heat are gonna be in for a long night

bogey_j wrote:he blows past wade on every play. i breathe a sigh of relief whenever he settles for a jumper because I know he can get by whoever's guarding him at any time. there's no one that can carve up the heat's D like this guy.

agree 1,000%
he can have all the jumpers he wants

only way OKC beats MIA is if RW gets to the rim and gets to the line
and he pretty much can every play if he wants (which is why i'd like to see joel play)
hopefully he listens to his idiotic critics and gives the rock up more cause he's the only player i fear

I agree. He's a tough cover for sure.

In a way.

Durant scares me with his shooting, but Westbrook with everything else, he does scare me.

He gets to the rim at will, and that's a huge weakness we have. We can't keep infront of quick PG's.

Then he CAN shoot, maybe takes bad shots but who doesn't? He takes the most buckets, more than Durant, because teams front/double Durant. Plus he has the ball in the first place.

Also he is a great rebounding guard. I think the blame Westbrook gets is unfair.

Durant and it's not even close.

I get what your saying. If Westbrook got real hot it's a problem, but it is not nearly as big a problem as if Durant gets hot. Do you remember the end of game 2? What the hell do we do if durant goes into Reggie Miller mode?

To me Westbrook simply lacks the basketball intelligence to really hurt us. The only way he can hurt us is to score and the only way he can score is with contested long range jumpers or 3 on 1 drives at the basketball. Durant on the other hand can score from the post, from 3, on the drive, and off pick and roll he can hurt you passing out of double teams.

I think the media got to Westbrook.

He didn't attack relentlessly and looked very calm out there.

Maybe playing at home changes him, but it wasn't the same Westbrook we faced in game 1 and 2.

Westbrook made some great shots today, even answering back Battier's long 3.

But a non-aggressive Westbrook helps us and hurts the Thunder. Last thing we want is a penetrating Westbrook, even if he bricks his lay up.

DefenseWins wrote:I think the media got to Westbrook.

He didn't attack relentlessly and looked very calm out there.

Maybe playing at home changes him, but it wasn't the same Westbrook we faced in game 1 and 2.

Westbrook made some great shots today, even answering back Battier's long 3.

But a non-aggressive Westbrook helps us and hurts the Thunder. Last thing we want is a penetrating Westbrook, even if he bricks his lay up.

Yep...Ironically...Kind of like what happened to LeBron last year..

Westbrook looked as if he was listening to the media too much.

Without Westbrook, Durant is kinda like Dirk. Great, but not scary. Westbrook can get to the rim and create for others so easily that he worries me. Hopefully he never finds the right balance. Not unless he joins our team. PEACE.

Harden has been OKC's silent killer for years. Whenever they start slipping Harden comes in and they go on their runs. For that reason he will always be on the bench because they need him when they need a fix. Talk about scary look at his demeanor on the court. The man shows little to no emotion and seems to be in control at all times. Even tonight when he made a bad pass and Durant or Westbrook was pissed its like he didnt care. The man is honey badger status.

Definitely. Westbrook breaks down our defense, and puts us out of position, which means open 3 pointers for guys like fisher and durant.

Whereas if it's just Durant, he's shooting contested jumpers against a set defense. I can live with that.

Westbrook breaking us down is annoying.

That said, Westbrook is no Rondo. I am still having nightmares about Rondo.

From someone who has watched Westbrook since day 1, I can tell you that anymore he's not really a guy you can just let shoot the jumper, aside from 3 pointers. Early on in his career he was really a very mediocre shooter, and that's being generous. He was downright awful 3 point range. He's still not going to hurt you much from 3, unless he just has one of those games where he gets lucky and knocks down 4 or 5, which is very rare, but he is much better from 3 than he once was. However, he hast VASTLY improved his pullup jumper from 15-18 feet. He's been off of late, I'll give you that, but in many other games these playoffs, he was getting on some really good rolls from 15-18ft. Basically he'll get you on your heels in anticipation of him driving to the rim and he'll stop on a dime and pull up from 15. It's 100% uncontestable. He's missed a lot from there lately though. When he's hitting that shot, he is absolutely unstoppable. He's been a bit streaky at it at time, but he's quite capable of killing you with the jumpshot. He's not gotten to the rim lately as much as he is capable of. I think he's banking on getting foul calls at the rim and the refs aren't really biting on it much and he's just going full throttle and throwing up some wild layups.

In a nutshell though, Westbrook and OKC are as dangerous as they can be if the guy actually gets in a pass first mentality. Problem is, he's got that killer mentality. That mentality that says..im taking charge, im going balls to the wall, I will ram it down their throats, they will not stop me. In part, that's precisely why he's so fantastic. However, he has still not learned to channel that properly. I think he's the last piece to OKC being a championship team. Once he learns to find the proper balance of being aggressive and creating his own offense with that of finding teammates and creating for other people and knowing when to do each one, it's going to be a bad day for the opponent. Lebron is a perfect example of this. He's learned that balance.

Do let Westbrook get his and stay home on everyone else. It keeps KD and harden off their game.

Yes, skeletons have scared me since childhood.

Hopefully today was his best game. He can only go down...but yea he's playing like a prime Wade.

It's still Durant. But Westbrook is still a hell of a player. I think people are just foccusing too much on this last Durant's game. Come on now, let's be fair.

Scary but he is the ultimate downfall the majority of the time just not tonight.

His basketball IQ.... balances him out lol.

We don't have a player who can guard him properly.

He's hard to stop. He's better than prime Wade at getting to the rim. Well...just as good as prime Wade, anyway. Probably has a better jumpshot. Not as good of a playmaker, but he's still really young. PEACE.