It was a tale of two halves for Russell Westbrook and the Washington Wizards against the New York Knicks on Thursday. Washington led 60-45 at the break and Westbrook was a force on both ends, blocking multiple shot attempts from RJ Barrett while also shooting an acceptable 3-7 from the field himself. After halftime, well the script flipped.
Russell Westbrook went 0-8 from the floor and had 6 fouls in the 2nd half tonight.
He is the first player across the past 25 seasons to go 0-8 or worse from the floor and have 6 personal fouls in any half. pic.twitter.com/mgP33JK5FH
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) March 26, 2021
The Knicks also went on to win the game, outscoring Washington 61-42 in the final two quarters to edge the Wizards 106-102. Westbrook was aggressive driving to the hoop in the first half and finding success, but couldn't get anything to fall in the second half, literally.
It's been one of those seasons in D.C., as the Wizards loss put them at 18-26 overall. The only positive that lies within that is that even with the lowly record, Washington is only three games back of the Boston Celtics for the 8th spot in the Eastern Conference.
Things haven't gone how Washington had hoped following the trade with the Houston Rockets in the offseason when they acquired Westbrook. While he is averaging 21.5 point per game, it's his lowest average since his second season in the league in 2009-10 when he poured in 16.1 per contest. Westbrook is also just shooting 30% from three-point range and a career low 61% from the free-throw line. It's a steep drop off from the 76% he shot at the line last year with the Rockets.
There's still time for Washington to crawl back into the picture especially given how weak the bottom portion of the East is. But the clock is ticking on not only the season but the experiment of Westbrook and Bradley Beal together in D.C.
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