There were concerns heading into this season about whether Russell Westbrook and James Harden would be able to get along with each other. The Houston Rockets stars got into during their regular-season opener.
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Both players didn’t believe that there would be issues given their strong friendship and previous history as teammates with the Oklahoma City Thunder. Westbrook believed that their relationship would help them with communication and understanding each other.
“When you have a friendship first outside of basketball, you’re able to communicate, and James and me have been friends for many, many years,” Westbrook said, via Tim MacMahon of ESPN. “When you’re able to communicate and understand each other, in the game, it’s easy.”
A similar sentiment was shared by Harden before the season began. He said that he would ‘sit back and watch the show’ if Westbrook has ‘got it going.’
“If Russ got it going and Russ is having one of those games that we’ve all seen before, guess what I’m going to do?” Harden said. “Sit back and watch the show.”
The duo is still in the early stages of playing alongside each other for a second stint. It was a much different stage in both of their careers when they were teammates on the Thunder, so it is expected that it will take time for them to adjust to the pairing.
If the Rockets are going to achieve their goals as a team this season, they are going to need their star backcourt to build chemistry together. That could take time as tonight showed.
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