Thunder point guard Russell Westbrook has struggled to shoot this season. The struggles by Westbrook have stuck for the majority of the year and they have only been magnified in the postseason.
Through four games against the Portland Trail Blazers, Westbrook is averaging 21.3 points on 36.3 percent from the field and 30.4 percent from three-point range — his 36.3 percent is the lowest of his career.
On Sunday, Westbrook scored just 14 points on 5-of-21 shooting from the field. He was held to just one point in the second half on 0-of-7 shooting — the worst half of his playoff career.
According to Royce Young of ESPN, the game marked the 29th time in his postseason career that he missed at least 15 shots, giving him the most such games in the NBA since his first playoff series in 2009-10.
As Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum have combined to torch the Thunder, they have not received much production from Westbrook outside of an efficient Game 3 performance on Friday.
The Thunder have been badly outplayed by the dynamic Trail Blazers’ backcourt and have offered little resistance to some other role players throughout the series.
With the team clinging to life down 3-1 to Portland, it may take a miracle for the Thunder to come back and force a Game 6 in OKC on Thursday night. In order to do so, Westbrook can’t miss another 15 shots again.
We’ll see which Westbrook shows up for Game 5 on Tuesday.
