Mark D. Smith- USA Today Sports
Russell Westbrook’s injury has given the Houston Rockets a chance at victory in the team’s first round playoff series against the Oklahoma City Thunder, but coach Kevin McHale must take advantage of Westbrook’s untimely misfortune.
Westbrook requires surgery for a torn meniscus in his right knee suffered in Oklahoma City’s courageous Game 2 victory on Wednesday night. The All-Star point guard is certain to miss the rest of the opening round and the second round of the playoffs as long the Thunder are able win two of the next five games against the Rockets and close out the series.
Without the smaller half of the Thunder’s knockout one-two offensive punch, the Rockets have one less weapon to defend. Oklahoma City’s attack is so dangerous mainly due to Kevin Durant and Westbrook’s ability to routinely combine for a mostly efficient 45 to 55 points each night. McHale will now be able to concentrate his defensive plan entirely upon stopping Durant and forcing the Thunder role players, led by Serge Ibaka and Kevin Martin, to beat his team.
The more interesting tactic will be to see if McHale opts to continue with the small-ball approach. In Game 2, McHale dumped his Greg Smith-Omer Asik big man pairing that featured so heavily in the final month of the regular season and instead opted to go with Chandler Parsons at three, inserting rookie guard Patrick Beverley into the starting unit. The Rockets love the three-ball, and should definitely benefit from more effective performances than Wednesday night’s 10-35 effort from long range.
Houston has a much greater chance of competing in this series thanks to Westbrook’s unfortunate luck. So much so that a small window of hope has opened suggesting this team may have chance against the Western Conference’s No.1 seed. It is now up to coach McHale to take advantage of the situation.
