Thunder Need More From Others
By Randy Renner, Senior Writer
It’s no surprise Russell Westbrook is dominating usage stats in the first couple of Thunder games it’s the rate and by how much he’s dominating.
According to Synergy Sports Tech when Westbrook is on the floor he has scored or assisted on 79 percent of the Thunder’s points. That number would likely be even higher had his teammates hit more shots. Westbrook has 19 assists in two games but he could have had a whopping 25 more if the shots taken by teammates after a Westbrook pass had gone in.
His usage percentage is 42.1 percent, highest in the NBA and 11 points higher than his final rate last season.
Those are numbers Westbrook tends to shrug off.
“It’s very simple, you want to win you don’t think about being tired,” he said. “To me being tired is a mind thing. It’s in your mind.”
It’s also on the minds of the Thunder medical staff and head coach Billy Donovan who said it’s “absolutely not” possible for Westbrook to maintain his current energizer bunny pace over the season.
“I think that even he understands and knows that what happened Friday night is not sustainable.”
Westbrook played a few ticks over 45 minutes and took 44 shots in OKC’s 113-110 overtime win over Phoenix Friday. He finished with 51 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists for his first triple-double of the season and the first with at least 50 points since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar did it in the 1974-75 season.
The 44 shots were more than twice as many as Victor Oladipo’s 17, the only other player in double figure shot attempts and points (21).
"This dude right here (Westbrook) wants to win more than anybody in the world," Oladipo said after Friday’s game. "He'll do anything to do that."
Donovan would like to get more production from just about everyone else on the roster, especially OKC’s big men.
"Overall, we've gotta get more people involved," Donovan said. "We've gotta be able to utilize our big guys better and pound the ball inside."
The Thunder will have a size advantage this evening against the Los Angeles Lakers. Steven Adams, Enes Kanter, Domantas Sabonis and Ersan Ilyasova can all score in the paint.
Kanter, who scored 17 points on 14 shots in the opener at Philadelphia, got just four points on four shots Friday.
The other bigs, Adams, Sabonis and Ilyasova combined for 22 points on 17 shots.
When the ball does go inside the Thunder have been effective, shooting 55.0 percent on shots within five feet of the basket and 53.9 percent within the restricted area.
Go out beyond those parts of the floor and things start to get dicey with OKC hitting 39.1 percent on mid-range jumpers, 33.3 percent on corner 3s and 25.0 percent on above the break 3s. Overall the Thunder are shooting just 41.6 percent (25th in the NBA).
The good news with all those missed shots is the Thunder have been getting a lot of second chances, their 55 rebounds a game ranks 2nd in the league.
The Los Angeles Lakers are in town for this evening’s game, a team that has been way up after an opening night win over the Houston Rockets and way down after a road loss to the Utah Jazz.
The Thunder swept the Lakers last season, winning the four games by an average of 28.8 points, only one of the four games was competitive, the other three were big blowouts. OKC has won eight straight games against Los Angeles.
Tipoff tonight is 6:10 and you can see the game on Fox Sports Oklahoma.