It's Hornets' turn to try to slow down Westbrook (Apr 02, 2017)
There are no defenses that Russell Westbrook hasn't seen at this point in the season. With the numbers the Oklahoma City point guard has put up, coaches have worked overtime to try and slow down the impact he has on games.
The latest was San Antonio's Gregg Popovich. During the Spurs' 100-95 win over the Thunder on Friday night, Westbrook saw even more attention than normal.
While this didn't stop Westbrook from putting up his 39th triple-double of the season, it did force him into choosing between him making a play or trusting his teammates to make them.
"Yeah, they were definitely trying to do that," Westbrook said of the multiple defenders. "They were bringing the whole team and that's what they do, but I just have to try to make the right play."
When the Thunder play the Charlotte Hornets on Sunday night at Chesapeake Energy Arena, they will be facing one of only two teams in the league that Westbrook doesn't have a triple-double against. The other is the Chicago Bulls.
Because of Westbrook's overall dominance with the ball, especially in the fourth quarter, the rest of the Thunder are not considered playmakers. While Westbrook is averaging 10.6 assists per night, the next closest on the team is Victor Oladipo at 2.5 per game.
As a team, the Thunder (43-32) are tied for 22nd in the league with 21.1 assists per game.
But don't expect Oklahoma City to change its game plan too much. When Westbrook gets a triple-double, the team usually wins.
"It's just constantly putting games together where we'll be able to consistently play at a high level all game," Westbrook said.
The Hornets are coming off a 122-114 win over the Denver Nuggets on Friday, when Kemba Walker exploded for 31 points. He is a player the Thunder will have to put an emphasis on stopping.
"Physicality. That's the most important thing," Thunder center Enes Kanter said. "We need to be aware of Kemba Walker. Obviously, he's a scoring point guard so we need to stop him. The most important thing tomorrow is going to be pick and roll coverages."
Charlotte has seemingly figured out exactly what they want to do offensively in the fourth quarter.
"Our fourth-quarter offense has been there all year," Charlotte's Frank Kaminsky told The Charlotte Observer. "We've been doing pretty well scoring in the fourth quarter, we've just been giving up too many points.
"The last couple games we've gotten the stops when we've needed to and just made the plays at the end of the game. That's what you have to do to win."
The Hornets (35-41) need every win they can get as they fight to make it into the Eastern Conference playoffs.
Charlotte is two games behind the Indiana Pacers, Chicago Bulls and Miami Heat for seventh and eighth place in the East. With only two spots open for the five teams in contention, Charlotte has some ground to pick up in the final two weeks.
