Donovan backs Westbrook’s style of play
The Thunder went winless against Golden State last season. In those games, the Warriors supposedly found it easy to
deal with Russell Westbrook. Jack McCallum’s new book “Golden Days: West’s Lakers, Steph’s Warriors and the California Dreamers who Reinvented Basketball” cites anonymous Warriors players saying that Westbrook’s style of play is easy to defend against. The buzz was supported by ESPN’s Zach Lowe, who earlier this week said on “The Lowe Post” podcast that he’s had conversations with Warriors players about defending Westbrook.
“Jack McCallum’s new book about the Warriors has a bunch of anonymous Warriors talking about how they don’t fear Russ,” Lowe said. “How (Kevin Durant) left partly because of Russ. How Russ’s style of play is so easy for them to defend it’s like cake to them.
“I’ve talked to the Warriors about this kind of stuff. What’s in Jack’s book is 100 percent what they say when you ask them about Russ.”
Westbrook averaged 27.3 points, 10.0 rebounds and 9.5 assists in four games against Golden State last season, but he also had 32 turnovers and shot just 37.5 percent in those games. In the last 17 games against Golden State, 13 of those with Durant, Westbrook has eclipsed 40 percent from the field just three times.
The Warriors were able to focus their defensive efforts on Westbrook last season, but this season should look different with the additions of elite scorers Paul George and Carmelo Anthony.
Westbrook was not made available to the media Thursday, but Thunder coach Billy Donovan was asked about the reports. “I’m not going to respond to that,” Donovan said.
“Russell to me is one of the best players in the world. He’s done it at a very high level for a long period of time. I don’t know where it comes from, but I’m not really going to comment on any of that.”
When asked if the Thunder needs to do anything differently to make Westbrook tougher for Golden State to defend, Donovan stuck by the notion that Westbrook is a difficult assignment.
“Just because somebody says that, I think you’ve got to look at what Russell’s been able to do, and Russell’s been very good for us,” Donovan said. “Obviously last year, our team was totally different than it was the first year, and the first year there it was a heck of a series that went seven games where we had a great opportunity being up 3-1. I think Russell was a huge part of that.
“Last year we didn’t play them in the playoffs, played them in the regular season, but I also think there’s a team out there, there’s five other people out there playing. So, I think Russell’s done a great job, and I think Russell is a hard guy to guard, and he’s very difficult and challenging because of his speed, his smarts and his intelligence. Whether or not he plays in the half court or the open court, I think he’s very difficult to guard.”
Patterson, Felton progressing
The Thunder returned to practice on Thursday to mostly noncontact drills, but one player was noticeably taking some bumps in post-practice.
Patrick Patterson crouched on defense as Steven Adams backed into him in the post. Patterson, who hasn’t been a part of contact practices in training camp as he recovers from arthroscopic knee surgery, took the blows from the 7-foot, 255pound Adams and stood his ground.
It wasn’t full contact practice, but it was the most seen from Patterson in the post-practice sessions. Donovan said Patterson and Raymond Felton (left wrist sprain) were both held out of contact in practice.
“The one thing that’s been encouraging is that we can do things with him do keep his conditioning up as well,” Donovan said of Patterson.
“It’s so hard for me to speculate a week from now, where Patrick will be, where Raymond will be. When they’ll actually be totally cleared to be full-go, I don’t know when that’ll be.”
Blue hires two
The G-League Oklahoma City Blue named Taj Finger and Grant Gibbs assistant coaches on Thursday.
Last season, Finger — who played at Stanford from 2004-2008 — was a graduate assistant for the Georgia Tech men’s basketball team. Gibbs, who played collegiate basketball at Gonzaga and Creighton, is coming off a three-year international career where he played in the Netherlands and Germany.