Russell Westbrook insists he has already taken his brother to task. Now, there’s still that pressing matter of the Memphis Grizzlies.
Following Oklahoma City’s 98-95 overtime loss to Memphis on Thursday, the Thunder’s star guard’s brother took to Twitter to assail Coach Scott Brooks, posting “we need a new coach ASAP like Rocky.”
The tweet was soon deleted and now all the concerned parties are trying to make certain the damage it could cause is not lasting.
“I took care of that, man,” Westbrook told reporters on Friday. “We don’t conduct business like that. Me and Scotty have a great relationship. I’ve never once mentioned that I want Scotty to leave ever since I’ve been here. We created a bond with each other that’s grown.”
Ray Westbrook also later issued an apology on Twitter, adding I “was just caught up in the game and shouldn’t have said it.”
If only dealing with Memphis could prove that simple. Westbrook and league-leading scorer Kevin Durant shot a combined 17-of-53 against the Grizzlies’ stout defense in Game 3 and managed just five assists between them.
“I feel like the media tries to pull us apart,” Westbrook said of all the talk about the dynamic duo’s shot selection. “When nobody is getting their shots you try to find a reason in between all of us. You try to find whose fault it is. One person didn’t lose, we all lost.”
And the second-seeded Thunder have now lost two in a row, now trailing the Grizzlies 2-1 with a critical Game 4 scheduled for Saturday in Memphis.
“We have to be better,” said Durant. “Maybe we are shooting too much. But we’re going to stay aggressive no matter what anybody says.”
Added Westbrook, “nobody is perfect, not me, not Kevin, not anybody. You want your teammates to make shots but when the game is on the line you’ve got to make decisions.”
