Russell Westbrook's Terrible 4th Quarter Play Last Night is the Reason for the Thunder's Loss

By Djack

Russell Westbrook, the triple double, and his record breaking season took a huge blow last night. The performance of Russell Westbrook in last night's 4th quarter was pathetic, embarrassing, and ultimately lost his team the game. Westbrook scored 51 points, dished out 13 assists, and brought down 10 rebounds, sounds like an unbelievable night, right? Well, like I said he cost his team the game. Thunder led by 2 heading into the 4th quarter, then Russell Westbrook had one of the greatest collapses of all time.

Watching Westbrook last night in the 4th quarter was painful, he was chucking up shots like never before, playing with absolutely zero control. He usually plays like this, but not to the extent where he was air balling shots and bricking shots regularly. Westbrook had 15 points in the 4th quarter though, that's really good. No, I could score 15 points if you give me 18 shots and 8 free throw attempts. Westbrook shot 4-18 from the field in the 4th quarter, 1-7 from behind the 3 point line, and 6 of his 15 points came from the free throw line, quite pathetic for the so called MVP. Well, he has no help, right? No, this is where his obsession with the triple double blew up in his face. In his quest for the triple double and creating this I'm a superhuman image for himself, Russell Westbrook lost his team. No one on the Thunder had any confidence whatsoever to shot in the 4th, every time someone other than Russ had the ball they just looked to pass it right back to him, I wonder why. 

Two games into the playoffs and Russell Westbrook is showing signs of completely imploding. After the game he showed pure frustration when asked about the stat line, saying "I don't give a fuck about the line, we lost." Hey Russ, maybe if you didn't shoot 22% in the 4th quarter, you wouldn't have lost. Hey Russ, maybe if you didn't shoot 18% from 3-pt range in the game, you wouldn't have lost. What do I know though, those triple double and huge numbers really have been resulting in a lot of success. Westbrook needs to play under control, trust his teammates more even if they are horrible, and try a new approach. If he keeps going out there trying to do the same thing that's just textbook insanity, it's not working, so stop trying. Allen Iverson had less help when he led the 76ers to the NBA Finals in 2001, but we just love to make excuses for Westbrook. I'm the furthest thing from a Russ hater, he used to be one of my favorite players in the league actually, then he got obsessed with the stats. Win games, be the legend you're supposed to be, not some stat boy.