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

[red96]

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.

Yep, and that should go without saying. What's makes his comment even more silly is that Harden was part of that Thunder finals team. And Harden is WCF proven. Dude is stealth trolling.

[Scizzup]

Russ had a 55% USG and 70% Assist ridiculous on both. Idk how Adams didn't get a shot in 2nd half though

[HotTubMike]

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.

lol nobody has said that.

I've said that the talent disparity is overblown... okc has quality players but the team isn't built well and RW doesn't make his teammates better.

Most "experts" and all other people had OKC as the better team entering the season but all of the sudden Rockets is a GOAT support team for Harden? Ok. They are good but Harden makes them better. Gordon and Anderson played with Davis in NOLA and they never did anything... suddenly they are playing with Harden and a 3rd seed? Not a coincidence.

[quatin]

I don't understand why OKC doesn't go to Adams and Kanter in the post. They're not offensive powerhouses, but they have a big size advantage over Capela and Nene. OKC can't win trying to out chuck 3s vs Houston. Didn't every single analyst say this before series? Westbrook can't carry the team by himself over Houston, they need to try and take advantage of their size.

[ocelot17]

There's just no ball movement with Westbrook, he doesn't make his teammates better.

It's dribble, dribble, dribble, pull up mid range jumper.

[Patches Perry]

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.

lol nobody has said that.

I've said that the talent disparity is overblown... okc has quality players but the team isn't built well and RW doesn't make his teammates better.

Most "experts" and all other people had OKC as the better team entering the season but all of the sudden Rockets is a GOAT support team for Harden? Ok. They are good but Harden makes them better. Gordon and Anderson played with Davis in NOLA and they never did anything... suddenly they are playing with Harden and a 3rd seed? Not a coincidence.

How many games does OKC win with Harden instead of Westbrook?

[Woodsanity]

This is NOT a typo. Thunder bench was a -64 tonight. Rockets bench: +41.

All that needs to be said in terms of talent difference.

[Big Mac Biyombo]

[Shock Defeat]

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.

He's not any more or less mediocre than Eric Gordon or Lou Williams. Both of those guys went for 21 tonight. Oladipo can do the same thing given the opportunities. If Oladipo had 21 points, the Thunder are tied 1-1.

[nbafan38]

I don't understand why OKC doesn't go to Adams and Kanter in the post. They're not offensive powerhouses, but they have a big size advantage over Capela and Nene. OKC can't win trying to out chuck 3s vs Houston. Didn't every single analyst say this before series? Westbrook can't carry the team by himself over Houston, they need to try and take advantage of their size.

Yea this is a good point, in general they need to slow down the game and play big, they won't beat Houston at their own game, I think the first half of this game fooled them into thinking they can keep up with the rockets scoring wise. I knew when the game was so high scoring Houston would eventually blow by them even though they had the lead most of the game. If OKC has any chance to get back into this series at home they definitely need to slow things down and use their bigs more.

[Screwston]

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

lol nobody has said that.

I've said that the talent disparity is overblown... okc has quality players but the team isn't built well and RW doesn't make his teammates better.

Most "experts" and all other people had OKC as the better team entering the season but all of the sudden Rockets is a GOAT support team for Harden? Ok. They are good but Harden makes them better. Gordon and Anderson played with Davis in NOLA and they never did anything... suddenly they are playing with Harden and a 3rd seed? Not a coincidence.

How many games does OKC win with Harden instead of Westbrook?

5, Harden makes teammates better than WB does

[Hello Brooklyn]

I love how Westbrook stans claim that Westbrook had to take all the shot because nobody else on the team could score.

Maybe we could draw that conclusion if anyone else touched the damn ball. At what point does your strategy change from constantly bricking contested shots?

Yeah, it's not like they blew a 12 point lead going into the 4th when Westbrook was off the floor. Should've let Roberson initiate more

Cool. That totally justifies Westbrook shooting every time I blinked for the next 12 minutes.

That's MVP level decision making.

[K_chile22]

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

lol nobody has said that.

I've said that the talent disparity is overblown... okc has quality players but the team isn't built well and RW doesn't make his teammates better.

Most "experts" and all other people had OKC as the better team entering the season but all of the sudden Rockets is a GOAT support team for Harden? Ok. They are good but Harden makes them better. Gordon and Anderson played with Davis in NOLA and they never did anything... suddenly they are playing with Harden and a 3rd seed? Not a coincidence.

How many games does OKC win with Harden instead of Westbrook?

I don't know, and neither do you, so these hypotheticals are pointless arguments.

[aemannarwal]

Like federer supporters who dislike nadal, harden or rockets supporters dislike Westbrook. Me myself a federer supporter never have liked nadal but that doesn't mean i don't consider him a top 5 of all time. Westbrook has a **** team to say the least. He tries to do everything on his own and more often than not he succeeds in regular season. But playoffs is altogether another beast. It can't be tamed alone by the likes of lebron, wat better can we except from Westbrook. He has to understand that in his current team he has pass more even if it means his team mates bricking shots. This will give them confidence and maybe they can make a series out if this. Alone he might be able to pull off one game at home.. but losing 4-1 or 4-0 is still losing.

[inquisitive]

Apparently RW probably thought the votes weren't all in yet, so he had to do extra work in the 4th qt to get that 50...

[NBAFan93]

Sucks the Thunder lost. Westbrook's stat line I guess broke all kinds of playoff records, and it's a shame there wasn't a win to go along w/ it. I guess off to OKC next to see if it helps being at home. Wish this series will at least go to 6 or 7 cause it sure is entertaining basketball.

Houston is just a much better team, their 6th and 7th option guys have more talent than the Thunder starters.

[leolozon]

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.

Yeah, we shouldn't criticize 17/43 and 2/11. That's just perfect basketball.

Maybe if Westbrook spent the year learning to play WITH his teammates, he wouldn't need to be the guy doing everything.

Oladipo's advanced numbers all went down year.
Taj Gibson's advanced numbers all went down this year.
Andre Roberson's advanced numbers all went down this year.
Steven Adams advanced numbers pretty much all went down this year (PER went up by 0.9 point)

But who knows, maybe they wouldn't be better.

[dodongo]

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.

He's not any more or less mediocre than Eric Gordon or Lou Williams. Both of those guys went for 21 tonight. Oladipo can do the same thing given the opportunities. If Oladipo had 21 points, the Thunder are tied 1-1.

He was given the same opportunity to end the 3rd, didn't you see? I bet he would've been given more time running the show... but that's when things went downhill for OKC. Oladipo couldn't do sh** and OKC was getting spanked by... Gordon and Williams. So yeah, I guess OKC should've went to him in the 4th huh?

Yeah, the supporting casts are just about equal. I'd even give a slight edge to OKC.

[Patches Perry]

lol nobody has said that.

I've said that the talent disparity is overblown... okc has quality players but the team isn't built well and RW doesn't make his teammates better.

Most "experts" and all other people had OKC as the better team entering the season but all of the sudden Rockets is a GOAT support team for Harden? Ok. They are good but Harden makes them better. Gordon and Anderson played with Davis in NOLA and they never did anything... suddenly they are playing with Harden and a 3rd seed? Not a coincidence.

How many games does OKC win with Harden instead of Westbrook?

I don't know, and neither do you, so these hypotheticals are pointless arguments.

I'm down with that, so let's stop with the making teeeaaammmatess bettterr rhetoric, because we don't know.

[EmperorLocky]

i unfortunately missed the first three quarters and only got to watch the last quarter. Tremendous first three quarters obviously stat wise for Russ as I didn't get to see him play. But in the end the fourth quarters is where great teams and greater players adjust to win games. Russ couldn't and I'd guess that he'd blame himself like true greats do. It was one terrible quarter though and I won't count him out the following games. Plenty of superstars have failed in the fourth for multiple reasons, becoming too passive or just not hitting shots when they have to.