"Russell Westbrook is the James Harden of PGs, defensively." - Zach Lowe

[Archangel]

Don't insult Russ like that...Harden doesn't just take plays off, he takes quarters off.

 

[labelplant]

Durant is really Good on D but he falls asleep sometimes but everyone makes mistakes.
I almost put Durant on the all D team.

Westbrook is horrible and just as bad as Harden. Not anywhere as good Paul who took some plays of during the regular season but when he is focused is one of the best in the NBA at his position

 

[MJ Truth]

It always struck me as odd why he isn't a beast defensively. Great motor, great size, unworldly athleticism...

He's missing focus and discipline though, which are more important than any of the physical attributes. The good thing is if he ever just dedicated himself defensively he'd easily be one of the better defenders at his position.

 

[scrt]

westbrook is ass on defense

 

[I AM WARHOL]

Durant is really Good on D but he falls asleep sometimes but everyone makes mistakes.
I almost put Durant on the all D team.

Westbrook is horrible and just as bad as Harden. Not anywhere as good Paul who took some plays of during the regular season but when he is focused is one of the best in the NBA at his position

Shhhhhh. The coli doesn't want to hear this. Durant is horrible defensively cause he's skinny and Westbrook is defensively amazing cause he guarded Lebron that one game

 

[Reid2Achieve]

Westbrook should be the best defensive PG in the NBA tbh. But it's a BBIQ thing.

 

[Gil Scott-Heroin]

I might be paraphrasing a little bit, but still, come tell us why Westbrook is better than Chris Paul on the defensive end @Z-Bo's Deep Thoughts

Because despite his bad habits, he still has more defensive impact than CP does - who quite frankly at this stage of his career struggles to chase the likes of Prigioni around screens. Did you see how many times CP fell asleep on the defensive end; letting Lillard cut straight to the rim unguarded?

 

[Gil Scott-Heroin]

Durant is really Good on D but he falls asleep sometimes but everyone makes mistakes.
I almost put Durant on the all D team.

Westbrook is horrible and just as bad as Harden. Not anywhere as good Paul who took some plays of during the regular season but when he is focused is one of the best in the NBA at his position

It's not just the regular season where Paul takes plays off, he was lazy as hell last night too. And besides, the 'when he's focused he's one of the best in the NBA at his position' applies more to Westbrook than it does CP.

NBA.com/Stats - video shot chart from G2.

Lillard's first attempt - loses Redikk on a screen and misses an open jump shot
Lillard's second attempt - loses Paul on a screen (CP fails to recover), receives a pass and misses an open baseline jumper
Lillard's third attempt - he gives up the ball, receives a pass while cutting down the lane, CP doesn't even bother to make a valid attempt at chasing him (Lillard's not even running hard) and he misses an open layup
Lillard's fourth attempt - he gives up the ball and receives another pass while cutting down the lane, CP doesn't position himself properly to stay in front of him and DeAndre doesn't hedge properly - Lillard splits both of them and hits an open layup
Lillard's fifth attempt - misses a stepback three while CP's in the vicinity but doesn't contest
Lillard's sixth attempt - he gives up the ball, comes off a pindown screen, CP does a good job of staying within distance, Lillard pump fakes on CP - causing him to bite and jump - BG comes over and contests Lillard's missed 3-pt jumpshot.
Lillard's seventh attempt - CP off-court; Lillard has his shot blocked at the rim
Lillard's eighth attempt - he receives a pass while cutting down the lane and CP does an extremely poor job of staying with him (again, Lillard basically strolls to the rim) and he hits an open layup
Lillard's ninth attempt - Redikk loses him on a screen and BG does a poor job at hedging and Lillard drives right by him and has hit shot blocked at the rim
Lillard's 10th attempt - he drives down the lane and CP does a good job staying on his hip , BG comes over to cut the driving lane off and Lillard misses a jumper
Lillard's 11th attempt - misses a contested 3-pt jumpshot on BG, after CP is left behind a screen
Lillard's 12th attempt - CP is caught ball watching, Lillard receives a pass while cutting down the lane and makes a dunk
Lillard's 13th attempt - misses a contested 3-pt jumpshot while being guarded by BG again
Lillard's 14th attempt - misses a jumpshot after trying to take Mbah a Moute off the dribble
Lillard's 15th attempt - he loses CP on an off-ball screen, receives the ball while cutting to the rim and his shot blocked by DeAndre
Lillard's 16th attempt - fakes out CP without the ball, receives as pass while cutting to the rim and hits a layup
Lillard's 17th attempt - tries to draw a foul on a contested 3-pt shot against Rivers, resulting in a miss
Lillard's 18th attempt - fails to take Rivers off the dribble, puts up a shot in the paint and has it blocked by Aldrich
Lillard's 19th attempt - Rivers slips over and Lillard misses an open 3
Lillard's 20th attempt - Lillard grabs an offensive rebound, after CP fails to box him out and he misses an open shot near the rim
Lillard's 21st attempt - CP is caught ball watching again, Lillard receives a pass in the paint and hits a tough teardrop over DeAndre
Lillard's 22nd attempt - he gives up the ball, fakes out CP AGAIN, receives a pass cutting down the lane and gets a dunk

Out of the 13 FGAs that CP is actively involved in on defense:

He made three adequate decisions/efforts
He made 10 poor decisions/efforts - some of them even being Harden-esque

While the above only outlines his defense on Lillard's shot attempts, it was a trend all throughout the game during other situations too.

 

[Regular_P]

Because despite his bad habits, he still has more defensive impact than CP does - who quite frankly at this stage of his career struggles to chase the likes of Prigioni around screens. Did you see how many times CP fell asleep on the defensive end; letting Lillard cut straight to the rim unguarded?

 

[Gil Scott-Heroin]

If CP played the same defense on Irving (that he did on Lillard last night), Kyrie probably would've dropped 35+.

 

[Gil Scott-Heroin]

he does the same stuff Iverson did

More like he does the same stuff Kidd did.

 

[Th3G3ntleman]

Yeah he's terrible defensively. He used to be real good I guess he just prioritizes energy for offense now cause he has these Harden/Rondo type lapses where he doesn't even try to get in front of people.

 

[Lord Beasley]

He's not James Harden bad but him and Durant are overrated on defense. Especially Westbrook, people confuse his athleticism and body for good defense.

Durants long ass should be swatting any and every shot in front of him. But Breh gets caught looking quite a lot. His lateral quickness on D is questionable too

 

[Regular_P]

If CP played the same defense on Irving (that he did on Lillard last night), Kyrie probably would've dropped 35+.

:smhkobe:

Lillard took a lot of difficult shots. Kyrie might have shot slightly higher with fewer assists.

 

[Gil Scott-Heroin]

:smhkobe:

Lillard took a lot of difficult shots. Kyrie might have shot slightly higher with fewer assists.

CP rolled out the red carpet for Lillard, right to the rim. The tape don't lie.

On a serious note though, if this were the early/mid-2000s or any period before - Westbrook would be looked at as a defensive juggernaut with how many rebounds and steals he gets. People have smartened up and started valuing what truly matters on both ends of the court; some of the old heads need to catch up though.