Rockets star Russell Westbrook returned on Saturday from a quad injury, marking his first in-game action of the postseason. Despite looking rusty on a minutes restriction, Westbrook provided a much-needed energy boost in his return, helping elevate the team to a 114-80 rout over the Thunder.
“He just gives us some energy, he speeds up the game,” coach Mike D’Antoni said, as relayed by James Jackson of The Oklahoman. “He’s going to get better the more times he goes out and plays. I knew he was going to be a little rusty but he gave us a nice little spark to start the game and I thought he played great. It was good.”
Westbrook hadn’t been active in quite some time and it showed. He finished with seven points, shooting 3-of-13 in 23 minutes of action. But he also recorded six rebounds, seven assists and a +21 net rating, firing up his teammates on the court and assisting them off of it from the sidelines.
“He brought that energy, he brought that excitement that we were missing,” James Harden said. “We just need him. Obviously he’s our leader. We all know what he does for the game of basketball and for our team so it was exciting to have him out there.”
The Rockets will play the Thunder in Game 6 of their series on Monday and will advance to face the Lakers in the Western Conference Semifinals with a win.
Here are some other notes from the West today:
- Clippers guard Patrick Beverley missed his fifth straight game on Sunday due to a left calf injury, Marc Stein of the New York Times tweets. Stein adds that Luka Doncic (ankle), Dorian Finney-Smith (hip) and Tim Hardaway Jr. (cervical strain) are all active for the Mavericks.
- Anthony Slater of The Athletic makes five observations from the Lakers’ first-round series against the Blazers, which they won 4-1 over a depleted team. Slater examined several positive developments, including the team’s better-than-expected perimeter defense, LeBron James‘ ramped up offensive production, and more.
- Greg Wissinger of The Sacramento Bee proposes a three-step plan to rebuild the Kings, which starts with trading some players away. Sacramento finished with a 31-41 record during the regular season, ultimately reaching Orlando but failing to make the postseason.
Hopefully Westbrook will play better on Monday than he did yesterday.
Slater: “Stats of the Portland series: In Caruso’s 119 minutes, the Lakers had a 90.9 defensive rating. In Kyle Kuzma’s 121 minutes, the Lakers had a 94.2 defensive rating. Those were the two stingiest “on court” numbers on the team.”
Remember when Kuzma was foiling Harder? Posters said that was because Kuzma didn’t do anything right and that fooled Harden lol. We will probably find out.
It’s not that hard when you’re playing against a team missing so many of their top players like the Blazers were. Round 2 will be harder.
Lakers in 5. Portland is much better than houston. Ad, dwight and Javale gonna cook you inside.
POR only missing Dame… so keep off that Kool Aid dude!
Are you saying Kuzma plays D. No real player in NBA got respect for Kuzma D. It’s why he can’t stay on court. He gets pushed around. I like Kuzma but he ain’t ready yet. 2way sport. And he got no business guarding Harden. He’ll be on a wing who doesn’t really score. Bad move to put him on Harden
That’s normally the thing. I haven’t liked Kuzma since he was rookie, kind of a perfect package of “youth is wasted on the young”. But those numbers; and Caruso was guarding Lilliard.