DeRozan is a Westbrook fan: 'I always love watching Russ'
TORONTO - Raptors guard DeMar DeRozan admits that he is an admirer of Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook and his continuing stream of triple-doubles.
"I'm definitely a fan," DeRozan said Wednesday as the Raptors prepared to play the Thunder on Thursday at the Air Canada Centre. "I always love watching Russ."
After scoring 25 points with 12 rebounds, and 19 assists, in Oklahoma City's 122-104 victory over the Brooklyn Nets on Tuesday, Westbrook has 33 triple-doubles for the season.
"It's just incredible to see that type of player, what he's doing every single night," said DeRozan, the Raptors' leading scorer. "Putting up the numbers, the assists, the rebounds and playing with the intensity he plays with."
The Thunder ended a seven-game road losing streak with their victory over the Nets. It was their third victory in a row after losing four in a row home and away.
Thunder coach Billy Donovan said the concern was not so much about the road losing streak.
"It's all been about coming out of losing four games in a row and just trying to solve areas that we need to improve upon," he said. "Continually trying to get better every day. Whether it's home or on the road, you're not really necessarily evaluating it that way. You're trying to evaluate it to figure out what you have to do to get better. In order to be a good team, I think you need to win on the road. "
The Thunder are 13-20 on the road.
The Raptors have won the only meeting of the season between the teams, 112-102 at Oklahoma City on Nov. 9 with DeRozan outscoring Westbrook 37-36. Westbrook also had seven assists and seven rebounds in the game, but committed eight turnovers.
With 15 games left, Westbrook could become the first NBA player to average a triple-double for the regular season since Oscar Robertson in 1961-62.
"He's a great player, he's carrying his team right now, doing tremendous things, the triple-doubles are out of this world," Raptors coach Dwane Casey said. "It's going to be team effort to try to control him and keep him in check. You've got to keep bodies in front of him, slow him down in transition, keep him out of the paint."
"We've got to show him five bodies," DeRozan said. "All we can do is make it extremely hard. We have to go out there and do it collectively and have a little hope as well."
The Raptors are coming off a 100-78 home victory over the Dallas Mavericks on Monday after losing the final two games of a 2-3 road trip.
The Raptors are 6-4 since they lost point guard Kyle Lowry to right wrist surgery that is expected to keep him on the sidelines for the rest of the regular season.
Raptors forward DeMarre Carroll missed his second straight game with a sore left ankle Monday but could play Thursday.
The Thunder are a slightly different team than the one that lost to the Raptors in November. Forward Taj Gibson was acquired from the Chicago Bulls Feb. 23, for example.
Since moving into the starting lineup, Gibson has averaged 13 points on 54.5 percent shooting and has grabbed 5.7 rebounds.
Center Steven Adams is making the adjustment to playing more next to Gibson and said it has not been a problem.
"Not that hard," Adams said. "It's just all in the system, mate. The hardest thing is just offensively catching him up to pace, but that's not to say that it's difficult or hard, it's just one of those things. He's a very smart vet and he's real easy to get up-to-date with. ... he does an amazing job of talking. He's been in the league. That's half of it. He does a good job communicating. It allows us to be ahead of the game, ahead of the offense. So yeah, it's easier."
Adams and his teammates could not help but notice that the crowd in Brooklyn cheered when Westbrook gathered in his 10th rebound of the game Tuesday to give him a triple-double. "It's hard not to," Adams said. "It was like half the stadium that were fans of his, which is weird, but it's cool, man. It's cool that he has a lot of support everywhere. He's doing amazing things on the court, so he's getting the recognition that he deserves."