NBA regular season to the end, the Rockets, Thunder, Blazers with the same record in the West three or four five, this campaign Blazers and Thunder narrow road encounter, the winner will rise to the third place in the West, the loser will be relegated to fifth, if you can rank third in the West, not only the first round of the playoffs have home advantage, but also avoid the second round of the Warriors; if you are fifth, not only the first round does not have home advantage, even if you step through the first round will directly face the defending champion Warriors. The importance of this game is self-evident.
The intensity of the battle is also fully in line with the importance of the game, the two sides did not win or lose in the fourth quarter, until overtime, with Wei Shao to play the bravery, the inside and outside shots scored 8 points in a row to score high. Westbrook scored 37 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists, and Paul George, despite his poor three-point feel, still scored 32 points, 14 rebounds and 6 assists with 17 of 20 free throws. Unfortunately, Lillard, although he cut the explosive data of 51 points, 5 rebounds and 9 assists, but Nurkic was sent off, and the rest of his teammates were also cold in the hand, and finally won the data but lost the game.
The Thunder have played a phenomenal season this season with Paul George's MVP level, playing a phenomenal season on both ends of the offensive and defensive ends, and led the team to an average of 115.5 points per game in the case of poor overall space of the team, ranking fourth in the league. Nearly conceded 105.9 points per 100 rounds, fifth in the league. In addition, the Thunder's offensive rebounds and steals are among the highest in the league, relying on aggressive defense and rebounding ability to make the Thunder play their best season since Durant left. But it is undeniable that the thunder's hidden dangers were also exposed in this game.
George's hand was not good, only 1 of the 9 shots outside the three-point line, the Thunder hit a total of 8 three-pointers, and the bench did not hit a single three-pointer, and it was only by the season that Westbrook hit 5 three-pointers, accounting for 60% of the team's three-point shooting. The Thunder have relied heavily on George's three-point feel this season, and nearly half of George's points come from receiving shots, and once George is targeted in the playoffs, it's hard to guarantee that Westbrook, whose shooting has fallen badly this season, will come forward every game as he did today.
Judging from the current situation in the West, the third-place Thunder and the eighth-place Clippers are only 3.5 wins apart, and there is no absolute advantage in the playoffs, no matter who the opponent is. Once the opponent is targeted to defend george, the Thunder don't have a second stable pitcher to share the pressure on George when needed. Westbrook's breakthrough and finishing ability in the point guard is top-notch, but it can be seen from the Lakers' situation this season that even James, in the case of poor space environment, the efficiency is still seriously declining. At that time, the thunder short board will be infinitely magnified, which has to be worried.