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Every team in the NBA knows what Russell Westbrook’s presence portends, and still very few have been able to do much to prevent the coming onslaught.
Tuesday night the Spurs encounter Westbrook for the first time since his well-publicized split with Kevin Durant.
Hurricane Westbrook arrives at an inopportune time, with the Spurs’ defense reeling following consecutive losses to the Pelicans and Mavericks.
Mavs guard Seth Curry – on his fifth team in four seasons – had a field day on Sunday, pouring in a career-high 24 points to go with 10 rebounds and five assists. Two days before, Pelicans guard Jrue Holiday put up 23 points, 11 assists and four rebounds.
For Westbrook, those are off nights.
“Especially a guy like Russell and OKC will make you pay for mental errors,” guard Patty Mills said.
And pay dearly.
Westbrook is aggression personified. He attacks the rim like a ballistic missile, averaging 11.2 drives per game, fourth in the league. He is producing 7.3 points and 1.4 assists on those drives.
Without any sort of Westbrook-ian threat, the Mavericks scored 23 points on 62.5 percent shooting on drives in Sunday’s game.
That’s a problem. So too is the Spurs’ difficulty defending against the pick-and-roll.
Despite the loss of his Showbahis most effective pick partner, Enes Kanter, Westbrook is still a play-making nightmare.
He has created 477 points as a pick-and-roll ball handler this season, third-most in the league.
Even before this two-game skid, the Spurs had struggled covering the pick-and-roll handler, ranking in the 41st percentile among NBA defenses. They fare even worse against the roll man, ranking 26th in the league (1.11 points per possession).
Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green may be the best defensive wing duo in the league, but it takes a fully harmonized team to stop a well-executed pick-and-roll.
The Spurs were out of sync Sunday, and it cost them.
“Our defense was pretty poor — we were always late on the switches and we were not as attentive as in previous games,” guard Manu Ginobili said following the Spurs’ 105-101 loss to Dallas.
Ginobili believes Tuesday’s meeting with the Thunder can be a get-up game after two letdowns.
“It’s a good test” he said. “I prefer to play a good team, a team that presents a great challenge at this point when we need to step up.”
Ginobili will get his wish – there may be no greater challenge in the league than trying to stop Westbrook.
nmoyle@express-news.net
Twitter: @NRMoyle
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