The Houston Rockets will advance to the second round of the 201 7 NBA playoffs after a 105-91 win despite yet another slow start. In the 5 game series, the Thunder shot 51.3% in the first quarter and were a +30 but won just one game. Houston’s starting lineup just did not show up in the opening minutes all series long. That cannot be said of the Rockets faithful on Tuesday. The fans showed up early to game 5 because, well, 1$ beer is undeniably enticing.
The lower bowl was packed and the stadium was rocking early. This will need to continue if the Rockets hope to make any sort of playoff push. Going down 6 points on average in the first quarter is just not acceptable. Following that poor start, however, the Rockets did what they have been doing all series, outscoring the Thunder when Russell Westbrook goes to the bench.
Eric Gordon and Lou Williams also continued to stretch their respective 6 man of the year campaigns into the playoffs. Lou Williams shining on a stage he usually shrinks. In these playoffs, he has shot 47.8% from the field and 40.9% from three. Both of which are over 10% better than his normal playoff career averages. He’s become a self-aware flame thrower, rarely passing the ball. Only .6 times per minute in fact.
Russell Westbrook kept coming, though. Nearly outscoring the Rockets in the third quarter while shooting 13/23 through 3 quarters and scoring 38 points in 32 minutes. Regaining the lead by five points. He was unstoppable.
Russell Westbrook is not going down easy!#ThunderUP pic.twitter.com/5Z8OCLlY8M
— Def Pen Hoops (@DefPenHoops) April 26, 2017
Billy Donavon then made his worst call of the playoffs by sitting Westbrook for the first 3 minutes of the fourth quarter. This allowed the Rockets to retake the lead by 5. Quickly scoring 10 more points. OKC was never able to recover. Westbrook attempted to do everything himself, the most predictable sentence of this entire article. Shooting 11 times in the fourth quarter and 34 times overall but nothing was working. They missed 10 consecutive shots at one point and though things got interesting, it never again was that much in doubt.
Billy Donavon made a few good adjustments against the Rockets. Playing Enes Kanter almost no minutes, going to the lengthy, athletic, Jerami Grant, and finally allowing Victor Oladipo to run the offense while Russ was out, were all good calls. The problem is, making those changes 85-87 games into your season is challenging. Westbrook’s historic season came at a cost. That cost played out in the playoffs as the stunted growth was felt every second Westbrook was off the floor.
Russell Westbrook is mind-bendingly great at basketball. But his style of play is not how successful basketball teams operate. The problem does not sit solely on Russ, however. His teammates enabled him. They enjoyed letting him eat so much, they forgot to feed themselves. That deprivation led to the Rockets advancing while the probable MVP walks off after a season of gluttony.
The Rockets will now await their second round match up between either the Memphis Grizzlies or San Antonio Spurs.
