Bledsoe and Westbrook stuff the stat sheet as Suns top Thunder in OT
The NBA is full of amazing lead guards, but perhaps no two are as active as Russell Westbrook of the Oklahoma City Thunder and Eric Bledsoe of the Phoenix Suns. Even when they’re not at their best, these two players simply make things happen at both ends. They run around, fly through the air, and often crash into opponents and teammates. If they stop moving, something is probably wrong.
Thursday night’s game between the Thunder and Suns at Talking Stick Resort Arena showed how both Westbrook and Bledsoe can impact a game. Phoenix ended up with a 117-113 overtime win, but the final score gives little indication of the straight-up weirdness of the night.
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After Phoenix had held an eight-point or low-double-digit lead most of the way, OKC fought back to turn the final few minutes into a battle for the win. With 20 seconds on the clock and the Suns up 109-106, Westbrook went to the rim in lieu of taking a game-tying three. He managed to tie the game anyway:
The and-one bucket still gave the Suns a chance to win the game in regulation. Bledsoe gave the ball up to Markieff Morris, but Serge Ibaka sent the shot back:
So, based on these clips, Westbrook was probably fantastic, right? Well, yes and no. The stats are absurd — he finished with 39 points, 14 rebounds, 11 assists, and three steals in 43 minutes. Yet it took him 38 shots to get there, including a terrible 1-of-10 mark from beyond the arc. With those numbers, Westbrook became the first player in more than 30 years (i.e. within the archives of the Basketball Reference Game Finder) to take 38 shots while also logging 10 assists. Those usage totals are mind-boggling, like the product of someone turning a parody of Kobe Bryant into an actual basketball player. (He also rolled his ankle on his potential game-tying missed lay-up in the final seconds of OT, but he appeared to walk under his own power afterwards.)
By contrast, Bledsoe was very efficient. He nearly notched a triple-double with 28 points (11-of-16 FG), 13 rebounds, nine assists, and four blocks in 42 minutes, not exactly matching Westbrook but also outdoing him in some respects. Bledsoe has taken on more responsibility with the trades of ex-fellow point guards Goran Dragic and Isaiah Thomas at the deadline. While the addition of Brandon Knight theoretically gives the Suns a dual-PG lineup, Bledsoe has the style and competitiveness to become the team’s leader.
Westbrook has embraced the role of OKC’s top dog in the absence of the injured Kevin Durant, inserting himself into the MVP conversation in the process. While Westbrook kept the Thunder in the game, he shot so poorly that it’s hard to say he was universally positive. This was a classic Westbrook game, one in which it’s hard to differentiate what he did well and what he did poorly because they so often occupied the same space. When the same process leads to both types of results, what exactly is the player supposed to change?
The Suns’ win kept them close to the Thunder for the race for the final playoff spot in the East. They are now virtually even with the New Orleans Pelicans at 1 1/2 games behind OKC, or close enough that we can’t hand the berth to the Thunder just yet.
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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
