BY: Andrew Edwards
The Oklahoma City Thunder now find themselves down 2-0 to the Portland Trail Blazers after losing 114-94 on Tuesday night. Capped off by an extremely poor shooting performance by Russell Westbrook, the Thunder will now have their backs against the wall in a must game in OKC on Friday night.
How did the Thunder get to this point? Once predicted to be the best shot to defeat the Warriors in a potential western conference finals matchup, the Thunder have now own a 13-15 record since the All-Star break. Previous to that, the Thunder were the third seed in the West and potentially were potentially even in reach for the second seed.
For much of the season, in large part due to the impressive NBA MVP campaign from Paul George, it seemed like the Thunder could possibly upend the Warriors in the WCF.
They now look nothing like a contender.
The only saving grace for the Thunder has been their top 10 defense and exceptional play of Paul George. George has carried this team to the record that they have this season. Up until this point, the sole blame lies on the shoulders of Russell Westbrook who has now averaged a triple double for the third straight year, a feat that has never been accomplished before.
So far in the first two games against the Blazers, Westbrook recorded 24 points on 8-17 in Game 1 and a downright embarrassing 14 points on 5-20 shooting in Game 2.
This is not what Thunder fans expected out of the once MVP caliber player in Westbrook. While he might be recording, or getting close to recording, triple-doubles on a night to night basis, Westbrook is handling the ball for far too long, taking away shot opportunities from the rest of his teammates.
If the Thunder hope to return to the success that they had for the first part of the season, they need to devise a plan that takes the ball out of Westbrook’s hands more and allows for more shot opportunities for his teammates. If they can do this, the Thunder potentially has a chance to come back in this series. If not, then it’s going to be a second straight year with a first-round exit.
