Russell Westbrook Shoots in Uniform for 2 Hours After Dismal Effort vs. Nuggets
Oklahoma City Thunder point guard Russell Westbrook returned to the Chesapeake Energy Arena floor in full uniform two hours after Saturday night's 105-98 home loss to the Denver Nuggets to work on his shot after making just one of his 12 three-point attempts.
Royce Young of ESPN.com provided comments from Westbrook, who downplayed the importance of the extra shooting session, saying, "I'd rather not talk about it, honestly."
"I'll look at the film and see and figure out how I can be better," he said. "But each game, in a loss, I figure out a way to make sure that my guys are ready to play, and I come back and improve some part of my game and read the game."
Westbrook is one of the NBA's most productive players, as he showcased again Saturday with 16 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds for his second triple-double in the last three games.
His three-point shooting, both in the high number of attempts and the quality of those shots, has long been an issue for the 2016-17 NBA Most Valuable Player, though.
The 30-year-old UCLA product is a career 30.8 percent shooter from beyond the arc and has never made more than 34.3 percent of his attempts from long range in any of his 11 seasons with OKC. He's shooting just 17.6 percent on threes through 11 appearances this season.
Thunder teammate Paul George said he had no problem with Westbrook's shot selection, per Young.
"Russ has the ability to take over a game down the stretch, but tonight those didn't fall," George said. "We've seen Russ get hot behind the three-point line. He has a real good way of turning it on when you need him to."
While Oklahoma City, which ranks 18th in offensive efficiency, would likely benefit from fewer threes from Westbrook, he's shown little interest in changing his approach. In fact, his 4.6 attempts per game this season is the third-highest total of his career despite his ice-cold shooting.
The Thunder will instead hope the late-night practice session will lead to improved results, starting Wednesday night versus the Cleveland Cavaliers.
