Relax, Russell; let the game come to you

Tell Russell Westbrook to relax.

The Thunder point guard has been wound too tight for the better part of two weeks. The result has been some less-than-stellar games in these playoffs.

During the first round against the Nuggets, he had seven turnovers one night, 30 points in 30 shots another night. Then in the Thunder's series-clinching win, he had a performance that was frankly painful to watch, an out-of-sorts, 3-of-15 night.

He wasn't quite so bad Sunday afternoon in the first game of the Western Conference semifinals, but commit seven turnovers and hit only 4 of 14 shots in the restricted zone near the basket, and it's a killer.

“I don't think he had the game that he would've liked to have had or we would want him to have,” Thunder coach Scott Brooks said.

Still ...

“It's one game,” he said, “and we understand that.”

Westbrook is going to turn the ball over. It happens to every point guard in the NBA. But committing seven turnovers is unacceptable.

Ball security is key.

“Definitely a concern,” Westbrook admitted Monday afternoon. “Just gotta get better at it.”

The same goes for finishing at the rim. Westbrook got to the basket with relative ease Sunday afternoon, but he missed 10 of 14 shots from close range.

“It was a good option,” Westbrook said of driving to the rim. “Sometimes I was kind of going too fast for my own good.”

Make no mistake — all of those shots weren't layups. Calling them layups would be selling short how tough they were. Any time you're driving the lane and shooting around Marc Gasol or Shane Battier or any other big body in the NBA, it's not exactly a layup.

Yet even Westbrook admitted that he missed some easy looks.

“Just missing chippies,” he said. “Some nights you have a night like that.”

“Just got to keep attacking.”