Paul George said he knew that the James Harden and Russell Westbrook duo would work. Not because Paul George knows how to play with James Harden, but because Paul George has played with Russell Westbrook. He goes more into detail here as reported by Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN:
“I knew it was going to work,” George said at the morning shootaround before the Clippers face the Rockets on Friday night. “Russ is a winner. Russ wants to win, Russ does whatever it takes to win. My time playing with him, Russ doesn’t really have an ego. He puts his ego to the side.
“He allowed me to be myself, he allowed me to be comfortable. And I had one of the best career [years] I had while playing alongside him. Russ is a heckuva teammate.”
Good for Paul George. I, on the other hand, hate this duo and thought it would fail. While there is still time for this, I may have underrated Russ’ ability to adapt. I thought that Russell Westbrook and James Harden would fight over the ball and be useless without it. There’s some instances where that has happened, but so far the duo seems to be working, at least more than I thought. I said in the Rockets team preview before the season, that just based on talent alone, they’ll make the playoffs, my personal prediction was the 5th seed.
While the Rockets defensive woes are still a thing, they have the ability to score like none other. However, the biggest knock on the Rockets, more specifically James Harden and Russell Westbrook, is their ability to win in the playoffs. Sure, James Harden has been to the Western Conference finals and barely lost, but other than that it’s been a routine second-round exit for Harden. It’s not any better for Russell Westbrook. After Kevin Durant left, he’s only had first-round exits in the playoffs. I guess we will see how that plays out come playoff time. But the playoffs are a different beast than the regular season.
