“If you’re uneducated and look at those numbers you'll say, ‘well, that was great’, but when you actually peel back the box score you want to cry.”
Missing his patented triple-double by just 3 assists would normally lead you to believe that Russell Westbrook had another type of MVP performance that should make him the favorite to win the award, but it was actually quite the opposite for the groundbreaking point guard in Oklahoma City's humiliating blowout playoff loss to Houston.
After shooting 6 of 23 with 9 turnovers and a -25 plus/minus, Ben Maller thinks Westbrook is back to his usual ways as a freight train ready to jump off the rails.
“Russell Westbrook played undisciplined basketball," Maller said. “He took bad shots, he forced passes – he plays like he’s out of control a good percentage of the time.”
Maller then compared him to future Hall of Famer Allen Iverson, who is sometimes synonymous with gaudy personal numbers at the expense of his teammates.
“Russell Westbrook had a vintage Allen Iverson-like performance, He shot 26% from the floor,” he said. “He took 23 shots and made 6 of them. That’s an emasculating shooting percentage.”