WCQF | (3) Houston Rockets vs Oklahoma City Thunder (6) | HOU 2-1

[HotTubMike]

Harden lead a bunch of scrubs and injured players to the 2nd seed two years ago

please.

Some players make there teammates better. Westbrook clearly doesn't do that. He just chucks chucks chucks.

[MartinToVaught]

Listen, I was ready to give Westbrook his kudos during the first three quarters. He was amazing and made great decisions, every player was involved and when offensive players are involved they end up playing better defense too.

Then the 4th quarter happened and he basically chucked the game away from OKC.

Which player(s) do you think should have been carrying more of the offensive load in the 4th quarter for OKC? And why do you think the results would have been any different?

Take Oladipo for example, he's a slasher not a shooter. The Rockets were not guarding him sell when he was slashing to the basket. Westbrook ISO ball relegates a lot of OKC's players away from their strengths, so of course if you make them stand around for 20 seconds just in case they get the ball, they are not going to shoot well.

Oladipo was 4-14 tonight. 1-7 from three. I see no reason to believe that the Thunder would have had a better chance to win with him taking more shots in the 4th.

[trickshot]

Harden is better with talent. Sometime in the first half I wondered why he wasn't shooting more when Ryan Anderson was stinking it up and it looked like OKC could run away with it. Harden stayed calm and exploded at the right time. Just because your teammates miss shots doesn't mean you should start shooting every other possession. But damn doesn't mean the Thunder don't suck

[Shock Defeat]

Which player(s) do you think should have been carrying more of the offensive load in the 4th quarter for OKC? And why do you think the results would have been any different?

Take Oladipo for example, he's a slasher not a shooter. The Rockets were not guarding him sell when he was slashing to the basket. Westbrook ISO ball relegates a lot of OKC's players away from their strengths, so of course if you make them stand around for 20 seconds just in case they get the ball, they are not going to shoot well.

Oladipo was 4-14 tonight. 1-7 from three. I see no reason to believe that the Thunder would have had a better chance to win with him taking more shots in the 4th.

How would you expect Oladipo to get into a rhythm when all he's doing is standing around on offense, knowing that the only way he will get the ball is if Westbrook needs to get bailed out. Give Oladipo opportunities early in the shot clock and let him play basketball and not stand around ball.

[Warriors07]

You cant blame him bc thats how it's meant to be. Westbrook is a great athlete but hes not meant for teamsports. Nobody wants play with him, he has an over competitively aggressive mindset. He does too much in a team, his teammates cant get involved. With KD and Ibaka, they just took turn doing heroballs anyway

[nbafan38]

The criticism of Westbrook is unreal, he was clearly exhausted by the 4th quarter and yea maybe he should have gotten his teammates involved but his teammates weren't exactly making any shots in the 2nd half. But overall Westbrook is the only reason the Thunder were even able to hang in the game, theres no one else on his team that can even create a shot in the fourth quarter, Oladipu is incredibly dissapointing. If the Thunder had the kind of reliable three point shooting the rockets do I am sure Westbrook would play differently.

[Patches Perry]

Harden is better with talent. Sometime in the first half I wondered why he wasn't shooting more when Ryan Anderson was stinking it up and it looked like OKC could run away with it. Harden stayed calm and exploded at the right time. Just because your teammates miss shots doesn't mean you should start shooting every other possession. But damn doesn't mean the Thunder don't suck

I can't say Harden is "better with talent" until he matches Westbrook's playoff resume. When Westbrook had Durant, they made finals and 3 WCF. Harden needs to prove himself beyond the 1st round.

[Dadouv47]

Harden is better with talent. Sometime in the first half I wondered why he wasn't shooting more when Ryan Anderson was stinking it up and it looked like OKC could run away with it. Harden stayed calm and exploded at the right time. Just because your teammates miss shots doesn't mean you should start shooting every other possession. But damn doesn't mean the Thunder don't suck

He wasn't doing anything. His team could be down 25 during the 3th quarter if our roster was slightly better. Westbrook sat and the lead went down to 3. Some rockets players played GREAT tonight (Lou williams is insane, but Harden? come on...)

[HotTubMike]

Harden is better with talent. Sometime in the first half I wondered why he wasn't shooting more when Ryan Anderson was stinking it up and it looked like OKC could run away with it. Harden stayed calm and exploded at the right time. Just because your teammates miss shots doesn't mean you should start shooting every other possession. But damn doesn't mean the Thunder don't suck

I can't say Harden is "better with talent" until he matches Westbrook's playoff resume. When Westbrook had Durant, they made finals and 3 WCF. Harden needs to prove himself beyond the 1st round.

Well Durant is lightyears ahead of any talent Harden has played with in Houston so that's not very fair.

[nbafan38]

Wow, Rockets fans must be the saltiest fans in the NBA. You guys won, no need to cry at Westbrook like little kids.

About the game I just want to point out one thing. Semaj Christon (Westbrook´s replacement) had a plus/minus of -15 in 6 minutes.

-15

In 6 minutes.

Yea agreed, if anything these first two games are showing how superior the Rockets are overall as a team compared to the Thunder.

[K_chile22]

Harden is better with talent. Sometime in the first half I wondered why he wasn't shooting more when Ryan Anderson was stinking it up and it looked like OKC could run away with it. Harden stayed calm and exploded at the right time. Just because your teammates miss shots doesn't mean you should start shooting every other possession. But damn doesn't mean the Thunder don't suck

I can't say Harden is "better with talent" until he matches Westbrook's playoff resume. When Westbrook had Durant, they made finals and 3 WCF. Harden needs to prove himself beyond the 1st round.

He went to the WCF two years ago and didn't have a top 3 player on his team.

[Patches Perry]

Harden is better with talent. Sometime in the first half I wondered why he wasn't shooting more when Ryan Anderson was stinking it up and it looked like OKC could run away with it. Harden stayed calm and exploded at the right time. Just because your teammates miss shots doesn't mean you should start shooting every other possession. But damn doesn't mean the Thunder don't suck

I can't say Harden is "better with talent" until he matches Westbrook's playoff resume. When Westbrook had Durant, they made finals and 3 WCF. Harden needs to prove himself beyond the 1st round.

Well Durant is lightyears ahead of any talent Harden has played with in Houston so that's not very fair.

Oh, I didn't think team talent disparities mattered.

[Fico92]

Harden is better with talent. Sometime in the first half I wondered why he wasn't shooting more when Ryan Anderson was stinking it up and it looked like OKC could run away with it. Harden stayed calm and exploded at the right time. Just because your teammates miss shots doesn't mean you should start shooting every other possession. But damn doesn't mean the Thunder don't suck

I can't say Harden is "better with talent" until he matches Westbrook's playoff resume. When Westbrook had Durant, they made finals and 3 WCF. Harden needs to prove himself beyond the 1st round.

To be fair...Harden was on the Finals team, and has made the WCF without another top 5 player...as the alpha on his team. Westbrook was the beta on every team with Durant on it, as much as I dislike Durant for leaving...

[rockets22]

Harden is better with talent. Sometime in the first half I wondered why he wasn't shooting more when Ryan Anderson was stinking it up and it looked like OKC could run away with it. Harden stayed calm and exploded at the right time. Just because your teammates miss shots doesn't mean you should start shooting every other possession. But damn doesn't mean the Thunder don't suck

He wasn't doing anything. His team could be down 25 during the 3th quarter if our roster was slightly better. Westbrook sat and the lead went down to 3. Some rockets players played GREAT tonight (Lou williams is insane, but Harden? come on...)

Harden was huge in the 3rd and the 4th. He hit some huge shots and assisted Gordon and Bev on key 3's. Harden had 35 points tonight. He was fantastic. playing a true point guard role.

[TMU]

Are you sure? Oladipo was 1/7 from 3. McDermott only played 13 minutes, and Gibson only 20. We don't have other good shooter. You can blame Donovan more than Westbrook.

I get that his teammates aren't the best shooters. But collectively, they still shot better than Westbrook. Also when you're the only one taking shots after shots after shots, don't you think it becomes really predictable? Uhm, how about you devise some some plays and run them, Donovan?

Look, I'm not out here to single out Westbrook. The entire organization needs to figure out how to incorporate its own players.

Not by TS%. And who else is supposed to take these shots? Its hard to say Westbrook lost them the game when whenever he was on the floor prior to the last 6 minutes they were killing Houston.

So their TS% is low, and that means they aren't allowed to shoot ever? OKC has no offensive scheme whatsoever other than giving the ball to Westbrook and letting something happen. Their spacing sucks, their passing game isn't existent, and as a result their offense is stagnant. You can't just let 1 man try to do everything.

[MartinToVaught]

Take Oladipo for example, he's a slasher not a shooter. The Rockets were not guarding him sell when he was slashing to the basket. Westbrook ISO ball relegates a lot of OKC's players away from their strengths, so of course if you make them stand around for 20 seconds just in case they get the ball, they are not going to shoot well.

Oladipo was 4-14 tonight. 1-7 from three. I see no reason to believe that the Thunder would have had a better chance to win with him taking more shots in the 4th.

How would you expect Oladipo to get into a rhythm when all he's doing is standing around on offense, knowing that the only way he will get the ball is if Westbrook needs to get bailed out. Give Oladipo opportunities early in the shot clock and let him play basketball and not stand around ball.

Have you considered that Oladipo just isn't that good of a player? He was painfully mediocre in Orlando before he even played with Westbrook.

[ocelot17]

Too much hero ball from Westbrook.

[rockets22]

I can't say Harden is "better with talent" until he matches Westbrook's playoff resume. When Westbrook had Durant, they made finals and 3 WCF. Harden needs to prove himself beyond the 1st round.

Well Durant is lightyears ahead of any talent Harden has played with in Houston so that's not very fair.

Oh, I didn't think team talent disparities mattered.

Harden took the Rockets to the WCF's. He has proved himself beyond the first round.

[Dadouv47]

I get that his teammates aren't the best shooters. But collectively, they still shot better than Westbrook. Also when you're the only one taking shots after shots after shots, don't you think it becomes really predictable? Uhm, how about you devise some some plays and run them, Donovan?

Look, I'm not out here to single out Westbrook. The entire organization needs to figure out how to incorporate its own players.

Not by TS%. And who else is supposed to take these shots? Its hard to say Westbrook lost them the game when whenever he was on the floor prior to the last 6 minutes they were killing Houston.

So their TS% is low, and that means they aren't allowed to shoot ever? OKC has no offensive scheme whatsoever other than giving the ball to Westbrook and letting something happen. Their spacing sucks, their passing game isn't existent, and as a result their offense is stagnant. You can't just let 1 man try to do everything.

I totally agree. But that's Donovan fault. And OKC roster. Westbrook was more than happy to let his guys hit jumpshots and layups first quarter. He doesn't shoot just because he thinks that's the way to win games, otherwise he wouldn't average so many assists.

[Dadouv47]

You are just blaming Westbrook instead of the thunder organisation. Presti only recruited one way player. It doesn't work.