Postgame Thoughts: Denver, 104 – OKC, 101

only thing that sucks about the playoffs is they bring all of the morons to the comment section

Good job Thunder. Went into their house and took a game. Now bring it home and finish them off in OUR HOUSE!

Westbrook is a great player, but, if he wants to be a shooting guard so be it, move him to SG so he can be a gunner, but, Presti, get us a point guard who does not mind distributing the ball to other players and we can win games like this one!!!

Perhaps it’s good that the Thunder got a game like this out of their system now, because it won't cost them anything. Oklahoma City’s 104-101 Game 4 loss to Denver leaves the Thunder in no great peril, as they still lead the best-of-seven series 3-1 and can close it out on Wednesday in front of their raucous home crowd. But the Thunder did display weaknesses that need addressing if they’re serious about challenging for the Western Conference crown. The perimeter defense was too lenient, the role players too invisible, the first-quarter energy too low, and the reactions to the refs too hot-headed. Despite all those shortcomings, Oklahoma City still would have completed an impressive four-game sweep tonight were it not for the most glaring weakness of all: Poor offensive decision-making, particularly from point guard Russell Westbrook. Don’t get me wrong, Westbrook is a fantastic player, and at 22 he’s going to be one for a long time. But he’s a fantastic player with a Colorado-sized chip on his shoulder, and his quest to leave his imprint on every possession of every game often takes him racing past the nuances that could make him a better point guard and a better basketball player. There’s a tension here, because this mindset isn’t something you necessarily want to corral if you’re Oklahoma City. It’s that mix of moxie and fearlessness that makes Westbrook a potent, if unnatural point guard; in fact it’s what allows his supreme talent to so often overshadow his still-shaky decisions. Yet it also serves to keep the ball out of Durant’s hands on many nights, even though he’s clearly the more efficient of the two as a scorer. This game was a perfect example. Westbrook scored 30 points, but needed 30 shots to get them – 15 of which were the jump shots that he struggles to convert. Meanwhile, Durant was methodically ripping the Nuggets for 31 on just 18 shots, but was starved of possession at times while Westbrook fired away. Westbrook made only 35.4 percent of his shots from 15 feet or greater this season, according to ESPN Research, and just 4 of his 15 attempts from there tonight. Seven of those tries were 3-pointers, including three in the final 30 seconds; none went in. The most egregious of the bunch came with eight seconds left and the Thunder down by three; Oklahoma City eschewed a timeout, Westbrook raced up the right sideline and tried a pull-up three, and his shot hit nothing but air and fell harmlessly out of bounds. He’s a 27.4 percent career marksman from distance; that ball needs to find Durant or James Harden. That decision was par for the course, however, with one three-trip sequence late in the fourth quarter typifying the evening.

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