By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
After two close games in Spain against Barcelona and Real Madrid which scored a record 142 points for a European team against an NBA opponent, Russell Westbrook took his hat off to the European style of playing.
“I think one thing people don’t realize is guarding teams in Europe,” Westbrook said to “The Norman transcript“. “Their offenses are 10 times better than NBA offense just because they move around a lot. A lot of movement and not as much talent so they have to do different things to be able to score the basketball.”
Coach Billy agreed with Westbrook: “Our guys getting more comfortable [with] the pace and the rhythm and how the offenses in Europe are running and that was probably a day to get acclimated and adjusted to that, to the speed and the cutting of the game. I thought the first game (ed.note: against Real Madrid), the ball got downhill quite a bit and got in the paint. Our three-point defense wasn’t where it needed to be, probably, in both games, but it was much better [in the second]. I thought our ability to keep the ball out of the paint was really, really important. I just think that we rotated, we scrambled, we moved much better than we did to cover and rotate in certain situations.”
“I think it was a good experience for us to be able to go to Europe and be able to guard those offenses and some of the best teams,” Westbrook said. “That’s always good for us.”