{"id":2072,"date":"2016-03-13T14:26:25","date_gmt":"2016-03-13T19:26:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/?p=2072"},"modified":"2017-07-08T15:24:49","modified_gmt":"2017-07-08T20:24:49","slug":"westbrook-gambles-away-thunder-wins-spurs-and-timberwolves-take-wins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/?p=2072","title":{"rendered":"Westbrook Gambles Away Thunder Wins-Spurs and Timberwolves take Victories"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"untitled\"<\/a>
Russell Westbrook shoots over Tim Duncan last night in San Antonio. (photo credit: AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It happened in the loss to Minnesota on Friday night in Oklahoma City.\u00a0 It happened in the loss last night in San Antonio.\u00a0 Subtle defensive aggressiveness by Russell Westbrook was the a deal breaker for the Thunder as the great one went for\u00a0 the glamorous steals in each game and that was all she wrote.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Friday night:\u00a0 Game tied at 93. The Thunder must make a stop as the Timberwolves throw in\u00a0from the side on their end of the bench.\u00a0Few seconds left in the game\u00a0The\u00a0 Andrew\u00a0Wiggins makes the drive to the right side of the floor, getting a double team as he gets into the paint.\u00a0 As he feels the double, he finds finds Ricky Rubio on the left side, in three point land, un-guarded.\u00a0 Russell Westbrook, on Wiggins drive, the culprit that left\u00a0Rubio open, had\u00a0drifted into the left side of the\u00a0paint, a move that was not needed (Wiggins was already doubled down).\u00a0 Wiggins sees Rubio, makes the routine pass, and Rubio makes an uncontested three point shot.\u00a0 Westbrook’s breakdown on the most important play of the game gives the Timberwolves a three point lead\u00a0with 0.2 showing on the clock.\u00a0 Thunder gets beat.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Saturday night:\u00a0 The Thunder has already choked away a fourth quarter lead of eight points and with the game tied, the Spurs exploit another Westbrook mistake.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0From\u00a0NBC (http:\/\/nba.nbcsports.com\/2016\/03\/13\/watch-russell-westbrooks-gamble-that-helped-change-momentum-for-spurs-win\/):<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

“It is tied 76-76 midway through the fourth quarter Sunday between Oklahoma City and San Antonio, and it was going to come down to smart plays and execution down the stretch.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

San Antonio did that better and closed the game on a 17-9 stretch and got the win.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The momentum changed with this play \u2014 Russell Westbrook<\/u><\/a> made a ridiculous gamble to go for a steal which left Danny Green<\/u><\/a> wide open in the corner.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/nyct.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n

The Spurs never trailed after that point.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Westbrook admitted after the game that was a bad decision and said \u201cthat is my fault.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Oklahoma City wants to win. But until they stop with the sophomoric mistakes (you can include Kevin Durant too), this team group doesn’t hunt. The fact Oklahoma City cannot consistently win\u00a0right now is not difficult to understand.\u00a0 The Thunder have lost eight games since the All-Star break.\u00a0 OKC is not a bad team, far from it. But they have become a “head” team. They need to pull their head out and play smart basketball. The head case<\/em> <\/span>of the Thunder is in the court of Russell Westbrook.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/path><\/svg><\/i> \"Loading\"<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It happened in the loss to Minnesota on Friday night in Oklahoma City.\u00a0 It happened…<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/path><\/svg><\/i> \"Loading\"<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2079,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[601,58,602,53,600,54,324],"class_list":["post-2072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","tag-danny-green","tag-kevin-durant","tag-kwai-leonard","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-ricky-rubio","tag-russell-westbrook","tag-san-antonio-spurs"],"a3_pvc":{"activated":true,"total_views":202,"today_views":0},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2072"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4542,"href":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2072\/revisions\/4542"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}