With Kevin Durant out, the Oklahoma City Thunder revolve around and rely upon the talents of one man: Russell Westbrook. In OKC's opener Wednesday at the Blazers, Westbrook was fantastic fuel for the Thunder, driving, shooting and distributing the ball with abandon and scoring effectively. He was Total Westbrook and it was working as OKC had a halftime lead and a shot at a big road win against a strong opponent.
The Thunder aren’t good enough to rest Russell Westbrook
Westbrook played only 33 minutes on Wednesday in OKC’s tight loss to the Blazers. That’s not enough, no matter the schedule.
Then Thunder coach Scott Brooks pulled Westbrook for what everyone believe to be a short rest with three minutes left in the third. OKC trailed by three. Due to roster attrition by injury, the Thunder's woeful lineup at that point consisted of Sebastian Telfair, Lance Thomas, Perry Jones, Nick Collison and Kendrick Perkins. The Blazers are a mediocre defensive outfit. But they are not bad enough to concede many points to that lineup.
It seemed pretty obvious that Westbrook would get a fluffed up rest from the quarter intermission and perhaps play the entire fourth. He’d only played 27 minutes to that point, and 39 is not unreasonable.
Instead, with the Thunder up two at the break, Brooks only subbed in Andre Roberson for Jones. The Blazers took a 1-point lead. Seventy seconds into the quarter, Brooks subbed Serge Ibaka back in for Collison. Westbrook remained on the bench until only 8:40 remained in the game and Portland had taken a 4-point lead. The Blazers soon went on an 18-4 run to seal the game. Westbrook ended up playing less than 33 minutes, as we had about three minutes of garbage time.
Brooks knows his team and its needs better than anyone, but from the outside it looks like the coach outsmarted himself on this one. Yes, with so much pressure on Westbrook to be the entire offense for at least the next month, keeping Westbrook fresh is a priority. Yes, the championship is won in June, not October. Yes, the other Thunderers need to find ways to stay afloat for the time being. Yes, the Thunder have a tough back-to-back finisher in L.A. against the Clippers on Thursday.
But that was a winnable game, and OKC needs early-season wins. The schedule is brutal, the West is brutal and chances are the fresh, rested and excellent Clippers will beat the Thunder regardless. A biscuit in hand is worth two in the oven. You’ve got to play the odds when the odds are otherwise stacked against you. Brooks didn’t. He did the calm, process-based thing and rested someone who is going to play a lot on Thursday and in every game for the foreseeable future.
That’s certainly one of Brooks’ strongest traits: he sticks with his gameplan no matter what’s happening in the game. That has earned him plenty of criticism but it also means his players always know what to expect, which is good. It just feels as though given the circumstances of the Thunder’s tough road ahead, it’s worth tearing up the blueprint when victory is within reach. Perhaps it won’t go well. But with his first seriously challenging roster in five years, Brooks might want to embrace high-risk, high-reward decisions a bit more freely.
Plus, c’mon coach, we’re already losing the visual wonder of KD for 20 or so games. Don’t deprive us of any potential RUSSELL moments. You want us to go through withdrawals? Think of the children.
