![]() It’s a small sample size but Westbrook is still recording assists on his drives at roughly the same rate he was with the Lakers, but he’s shooting 55.4 percent himself on those drives, compared to 47.2 before being traded. The Clippers have eight other guys on the roster shooting 37.0 percent or better from beyond the arc this season. The Lakers didn’t have many other shooters to stretch the defense around Westbrook. The difference is that the Clippers are much better suited to survive these scenarios or even bend them to their advantage. Almost any time he handles the ball behind the arc, teams are going to give him plenty of space and try to keep him out of the paint and from drawing in other defenders. Westbrook’s strengths and weaknesses are completely established at this point and no brief streak of hot shooting is going to meaningfully alter the way defenses handle him. Just under two minutes into the first quarter last night, Dennis Schroder and Austin Reaves completely abandoned Westbrook and let him dribble into a wide-open pull-up.Īt the end of that sequence, you’ll notice that he pointed right at LeBron after the shot went in, a bit of delightful pettiness that did not go unnoticed by fans or media. Westbrook attempted two other 3-pointers in the game, in the second and third quarter, both similarly wide-open and both missed. ![]() He gets a lot of opportunities for those wide-open 3s because, as you would expect, teams are more than happy to ignore him behind the arc. That percentage places him dead last, and by a significant margin, among the 61 players who have attempted at least 175 wide-open 3s this year. He’s attempted 191 wide-open 3-pointers this season (no defender within six feet of him) and made just 31.9 percent. The 3-point shooting of Russell Westbrook has been much derided and with good reason. Russell Westbrook and the art of the open 3-pointer ![]() The Clippers bench, in particular, showed up for Westbrook - Norm Powell, Bones Hyland and Terance Mann combined for 51 points on 16-of-27 from the field.īut Westbrook also did his part, putting up 14 points in just 20 minutes and knocking down two early 3-pointers that helped the Clippers set the tone. The Clippers admitted they spent the past two days preparing for this game with Russell’s revenge front and center in their minds and they delivered a 125-118 win that saw them lead by as much as 24. All of those things were certainly on the line but the biggest vessel for emotional intensity was Russell Westbrook seeking revenge on the Lakers, who scapegoated him for two years of disappointments, relegated him to the bench to start this season and then traded him in February. Kawhi Leonard, or playoff seeding or municipal bragging rights, then you lost the thread. If you thought last night’s marquee matchup between the Los Angeles Clippers and Los Angeles Lakers was about LeBron James vs. In today’s NBA news, Russell Westbrook celebrates his revenge over the Lakers, the Warriors get a tough Andrew Wiggins update and more.
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