Russell Westbrook wasn’t amused after the Thunder lost Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals to the Golden State Warriors in a series where the Oklahoma City Thunder had a 3-1 advantage.
When the question arose to Westbrook regarding his defense in stopping Steph Curry who scored 15 points to seal the win in the 4th quarter, Westbrook gave a surprising answer.
Umm, he scored a lot on our bigs.
He did a good shot at making some tough shots over our bigs.
Our bigs came out on switches, and he made some tough shots over them.
That answer is partially true, but doesn't address the question at hand, nor did he refer to his own defense.
The Thunder planned to switch when Curry dribbled around screens. This meant that Thunder big men Serge Ibaka and Steven Adams were on the perimeter guarding Curry quite often, hoping to bother his shooting with their length or force him into a defensive trap in the paint.
It backfired, as Curry was able to exploit the switches as mismatches and use his dribbling skills and speed to get open looks, something we've seen all season.
Westbrook dismissed what Curry does as being unique earlier in the series, and some people took exception to it.
Now, questions about his own defense were answered with remarks about Curry's success against others, making some believe he didn't believe in Coach Billy Donovan's plan, or he threw his teammates under the bus.
Regardless, if it was any of those things or not, Westbrook successfully avoided questions about his own defense before leaving the press conference.
[button width=”full” button size=”bigger” color=”custom” align=”center” textcolor=”#ffffff” texthcolor=”#ffffff” bgcolor=”#8b0000″ link=”https://clutchpoints.com/video-russell-westbrook-gets-back-draymond-green-kick-shot/”]NEXT: Russell Westbrook gets back at Draymond Green with kick out on his shot[/button]
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