Oklahoma City star Russell Westbrook and Houston star James Harden will be playing against each other in the playoffs as the primary player their respective teams.
The Rockets took a 1-0 series lead despite shooting just 30 percent from behind the 3-point arc.
So on Sunday night, in trouncing the Thunder by a score of 118-87, not only did the Rockets absolutely and utterly curb stomp Oklahoma City into a 1-0 deficit in their best of seven playoff series, but they are also one-fourth of the way to exposing the Westbrook MVP voters for the surface-thinking, raw-stat worshipping humps that they are.
While averaging 11.4 assists in a season is elite, regardless of who you are passing to, it is made a lot easier when your teammates are capitalizing on their open looks. James Harden led the way with 37 points, nine assist and seven rebounds in the game. "I think it's fantastic", Rockets coach Mike D'Antoni said of the Harden-Westbrook matchup.
It's not every night that it will affect Westbrook the way it did in Game 1. Best I can tell, Harden's main deficiency in comparing his season to Westbrook's is Harden's per game rebound average (a little more than eight per game) only has one digit, not two.
As for Russell Westbrook, he's had better nights. The most glaring statistic from Game 1 is the fact that Westbrook committed nine turnovers, mainly due to the subject of the next takeaway.
Corbyn welcomes Theresa May's call for general election
Over at the Liberal Democrats, the party are hoping to regain some of the votes they lost in in general election in 2015. She said: "In David Cameron I follow in the footsteps of a great modern prime minister".
Boston Celtics' Isaiah Thomas (4) battles Chicago Bulls' Robin Lopez (8) for a rebound during the first half of a first-round NBA playoff basketball game, Sunday, April 16, 2017, in Boston.
And the man doesn't even let getting knocked down like that keep him out.
Rockets guard Patrick Beverley was in a high-stepping mood Sunday.
Thunder win if - Westbrook gets some help offensively (particularly from shooters), Roberson's defense frustrates Harden (significantly) and the bigs dominate the glass and cash in on second-chance opportunities. Game 1 of this duel between the two former teammates went decidedly to Harden. Patrick Beverley wasn't the only one to outrebound the trio of Adams, Kanter and Gibson as Ryan Anderson grabbed 12 boards of his own. It's going to take a team effort to level the series in Game 2 but I'm looking specifically at Victor Oladipo to make an impact after he finished with just six points on one of 12 shooting in Game 1. They doubled up the Thunder on the offensive glass; OKC's second-leading rebounder, Steven Adams, only had five boards total.
Golden State withstood 75 combined points from the Trail Blazers duo of Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum to triumph in a game that saw 22 lead changes.
In perhaps the most surprising statistic of the night, the Rockets held a 62-38 edge in points in the paint. The Thunder have to try and force the Rockets to play a half court, grind it out game and hope for timely shot making from their supporting cast.
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