Healthy Paul and Thunder set to face Rockets without Westbrook.
Paul healthy, Westbrook hurt entering a first-round series loaded with irony
If the inevitable story lines were not already pouring in, thick with irony and reminders of all that brought the Rockets and Thunder to this point, they became even more unavoidable Thursday.
The Rockets will be without former Oklahoma City icon Russell Westbrook when their playoff series with the Thunder begins Tuesday. Westbrook has a strained right quadriceps muscle, a person with knowledge of the situation said Thursday.
The Rockets had announced Wednesday, the day after he returned to game action, that Westbrook would be re-evaluated before the playoffs. He awoke Wednesday with soreness and underwent an MRI that revealed the extent of the injury.
“He’ll be re-evaluated this weekend,” Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni said on his weekly appearance on SportsTalk 790. “He will miss (Friday) — that’s for sure. Probably a couple practices. Then we’ll try to get him as close to 100 percent as possible. We’ll know more (from) how he responds to treatment and also a couple MRIs going forward.”
Meanwhile, Chris Paul, the guard the Rockets gave up to get Westbrook, has gone from injury-plagued with Houston to indestructible ever since.
The Rockets are 8-6 this season without Westbrook, who has been held out of one game in
each back-to-back. Paul has not missed a game for only the second time in his 15 NBA seasons, the previous occurrence coming in 201415.
As much as his pride after being traded could have driven Paul’s phenomenal season as Oklahoma City’s leader, that pride will make him especially determined against a Rockets team that swapped him days after he had been assured a deal had not come together.
“It’ll be interesting,” Paul said in the postgame Zoom news conference Wednesday. “Two teams that know a lot about each other.”
If he had any difficulty maintaining a poker face, the mask he wore hid any feelings his expression otherwise might have revealed.
Paul never accepted the notion the Thunder were not a playoff team even though OKC, having also moved Paul George, was considered to be rebuilding around young talent and an enormous stockpile of firstround picks, two of which the Rockets gave them in acquiring Westbrook.
As it is, Houston and Oklahoma City reach their final seeding games Friday with identical 44-27 records in the middle of the Western Conference playoff pack, with the Rockets trying to fill an enormous void they can only hope will be short-term.
The Rockets’ defense has been greatly improved since the restart, ranking third and using a switching style better served to defend Paul than teams that drop centers and give up the midrange pocket in which he thrives. But they also will have to pit their small, center-free lineup against one of the league’s most powerful big men, Steven Adams, and the swift Nerlens Noel.
The Rockets especially must get their shooters going.
While Ben McLemore and Jeff Green have brought strong play off the bench or when filling in as starters, Robert Covington and P.J. Tucker have made just 20.5 percent and 29.4 percent of their 3s, respectively. Eric Gordon has played in just one game after spraining his left ankle in the final scrimmage, making just 1of-9 3-pointers Wednesday.
James Harden has been phenomenal on both ends of the floor in the bubble, averaging 33.4 points despite often seeing double teams near midcourt. He has made 51.6 percent of his shots while adding 7.6 rebounds, 8.6 assists and three steals per game. But he has struggled against the Thunder this season, making just 32.8 percent of his shots against his former team.
Even if the Rockets — who rank 18th in 3-point percentage in the restart — get their shooting going, they at least initially will have to navigate the 12 minutes per game they won’t have Harden
or Westbrook on the floor.
The Rockets have handled those stretches well at times in the seeding games, particularly against the Kings when Austin Rivers dominated in a 41-point performance, but the Thunder are especially deep in the backcourt.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has thrived next to Paul, becoming the Thunder’s leading scorer. Dennis Schroder, a Sixth Man of the Year finalist, left the ESPN campus
for the birth of his second child but has returned and could be cleared in time to play Friday. But the Thunder do have an injury concern of their own with rookie two-way player Lu Dort hurt Wednesday.
Dort was an option to defend Harden, but Andre Roberson, who had been among the most effective defensive players against the league’s leading scorer, returned for the restart after missing two years and could assume those duties again.
To all that, the series adds the oddity of the Rockets going against Danilo Gallinari, Oklahoma City’s second-leading scorer and the son of Vittorio Gallinari, D’Antoni’s roommate when they played in Milan.
Not that this matchup needed that coincidence to be “interesting.” When it comes to story lines, Rockets-Thunder is chock-full.