Different People at the Very Same Job

Russell Westbrook will not go down very easily to the Lakers. Kevin Durant has to deal with Ron Artest.

It seems pretty simple, and it is.

Let Westbrook go to work. Thabo will give Kobe headaches on defense, Westbrook will force him to help out Fish or Farmar, at which point he can kick it out to whoever is open.

Green is good, but not on the same level as Westbrook or Durant. Thabo is a great defender, but he's not a must-defend threat. This is a good thing, as it means defenses will play off of them.

If they insist on doubling up on Durant, use your other players. The Jordan Rules stopped working after a while. If you put Sefolosha, Green, and Westbrook together, that's like having one Scottie Pippen. So use them.

In somewhat unrelated news, Brandon Jennings did Brandon Jennings things for the Bucks. Dynamite in the first game, and picked up the slack because Bogut wasn't there. Significant if only because it's a knock on the door of everyone who said the Bucks were only a breakout team because of Bogut's rise to prominence. While there is some truth to this notion, one cannot forget that Brandon Jennings did lay a double nickel on the NBA, and even if this was a fluke performance, the explosiveness is there, and it also means that Jennings can carry a good portion of the load on his back. Bogut and Jennings is a good combination, and though it's doubtful that the Bucks will make it into the next round, there's a lot to look forward to. I wouldn't go to sleep on Brandon Jennings. He's not the Rookie of the Year, but he has a higher ceiling than the two front-runners. So I make myself clear:

I think that Brandon Jennings will be a better pro (both in terms of ability and team success) than either Tyreke Evans or Stephen Curry. They may post better individual stats, because of the systems that they'll be in or because of their usage percentages, but I think, ultimately, Brandon Jennings will be remembered as a better player than either of them...

...unless the Bucks ship him off somewhere OR if they don't get him some decent help.