NBA Playoffs 2019: Winners and Losers from April 16th

Loser: Westbrookism

Russell Westbrook averaged a triple-double each of the past three seasons and is a unanimous superstar, and there’s no denying that. But he can not be the best player on a title-contending team. His field goal percentages suggest he should act more as a distributor and hustle guy, which he did for most of the year, deferring to Paul George in must-score situations.

This was my favorite Westbrook year of the last five. He settled down, realized he has a 6-foot-8 28-point-per-game wing at his disposal and allowed him to take over when the Thunder needed him to. Forty-three shots In A Playoff Game Westbrook hibernated during the regular season, and he put together perhaps his most beneficial season of the last three.

A lot of that credit goes to the emergence of Paul George as an MVP candidate; but weirdly, Westbrook’s brutal year shooting the basketball forced him into a beta role within the Oklahoma City offense, which unlocked the peak version of the PG-Russ Thunder.

Last night, Russ reverted. He finished 5-20 from the field and 1-6 from three. Meanwhile, George was 11-20 and 2-7 – not a career night, but worthy of more shots than Westbrook. There’s actually a lot of factors that play into this. George is dealing with obvious lingering shoulder uncomfort and hasn’t been the superstar he was all season over the past month or so.

Yet, he’s still performed as by far the best and most reliable scorer on the Thunder roster, which is currently a desert of elite scoring prowess. Still, in the playoffs, you have to live and die by the pieces that that got you there, and Paul George clutch takeovers were a significant part of their prolonged winning in the middle of the regular season, so Russell and Billy Donovan, please hand the keys back to Paul, even if he’s not 100% healthy.