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In Hindsight, Russell Westbrook Probably Shouldn’t Have Tried To Draw A Foul With A Halfcourt Heave With 18 Seconds Left On The Shot Clock

If Russell Westbrook had gotten the foul call he was clearly looking for on this halfcourt heave during his team’s 105-93 loss to the Spurs last night, we’d be celebrating his mad genius right now. Well, actually, maybe not quite – we might still be wondering exactly what possessed him to shoot from 40-odd feet with 2:29 left in the third quarter and 18 seconds left on the shot clock instead of, you know, run an offensive possession in order to get a shot closer than 40-odd feet. But we wouldn’t be able to argue with the results, at least. Instead, though, Westbrook did not get the foul call he was looking for:

So instead we’re left with one more missed shot in a night that contained a lot of them for Westbrook (he finished 11-for-27 from the field), and a lot of shots, period (his 27 attempts were more than twice as many as any other Thunder player, including Kevin Durant). If these two teams meet again in the West finals, the Thunder might want to close up that shot disparity… or at least make sure it doesn’t come about from shots like this.

[CJ Fogler]