For as great as Russell Westbrook is on the basketball court, his on-court decision making and late-game failures have always been major areas of concern.
Throughout his career, Russ has earned a reputation for being a bit careless with the ball, either turning it over or taking, and missing, ill-advised shots in the most important situations.
In Houston, during just his second game back to action, one of those infamous scenarios played out yet again.
Throughout the contest, Westbrook was throwing away the basketball. He finished with a ganme0high 7 turnovers on the night to go along with his 17 points.
The worst of it came late in the fourth quarter when he followed up an air-ball with a pretty rough pass out of bounds to give OKC the ball with second seconds left in the game. At that point, the Rockets were down just two points.
This Russell Westbrook airball 🤢
— NBA SKITS (@NBA_Skits) September 1, 2020
Russell Westbrook’s turnover might have lead us to a Game 7. https://t.co/bxxZwl45Ob
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) September 1, 2020
This essentially sealed the outcome, and both teams will be playing Game 7 on Wednesday.
Until then, Russ can expect to hear a lot of heat from the community, who quick to jump on him for his pretty rough performance tonight.
This is Russell Westbrook’s best playoff game in a while for the Thunder
— NBA SKITS (@NBA_Skits) September 1, 2020
Costly turnover for Russ 😬 https://t.co/E3xucKznNv
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) September 1, 2020
Harden to Westbrook pic.twitter.com/AzWCyn8Kfa
— Just a fan of a fan (@ALLICONICSPORTS) September 1, 2020
https://twitter.com/okcsucksass/status/1300641947225174019https://twitter.com/HoopBlogs/status/1300641905739530240
Russ just choked the game away..
— GoodGuysBets (@goodguysbet) September 1, 2020
Draymond was right all along https://t.co/xvVab7MWF7
— GoodGuysBets (@goodguysbet) September 1, 2020
All-in-all, it was a very winnable game for Houston that they pretty much gave away in the clutch. While the burden does not fall on Westbrook alone, he was clearly amongst the biggest factors of their loss.
Fortunately, he will have the chance to redeem himself in Game 7.
