Houston Rockets point guard Russell Westbrook has been on an absolute tear of late, putting up some MVP-caliber numbers over the past couple of weeks. In his past six outings, the 31-year-old has been averaging 31.7 points (on an astounding 58.3 percent shooting clip), 12.0 rebounds, 9.0 assists, and 3.0 steals per ballgame.
We’ve gotten used to seeing Westbrook average a triple-double in the past, so this type of output is no longer out of the ordinary by his high standards. However, one baffling statistic that stands out is the significant dip in the nine-time All-Star’s attempts from 3-point territory. Westbrook has a career average of 3.7 attempts from distance, but over the six-game span described above, he has mysteriously averaged just 0.3 shots from beyond the arc.
As it turns out, though, this is something Westbrook conjured up on his own, without any directive from the Rockets coaching staff. This is via Michael Pina of SB Nation.
According to a team source, nobody in the organization told Westbrook to stop shooting threes, and the team expects his period of adjustment to continue as we go deeper into the season.
Westbrook has been terrible from 3-point country this season, making just 23.5 percent of his attempts (4.3) per game. The last time we saw the former MVP shoot this poorly from distance was during his sophomore year (22.1 percent). Things obviously weren’t clicking for Westbrook, so perhaps he realized that it would be a better idea to be more aggressive on the offensive end instead of settling for 3-pointers.
This decision appears to have worked wonders for Westbrook, and hopefully, this begins to translate to wins for the Rockets, who are currently at the sixth spot in the West with a 29-18 record.
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