Who Deserved The 2nd Team More?

Now that the season is over and the playoffs have ended, the award finalists have been revealed and the All-NBA teams are out.

The First Team consists of:

Steph Curry, G

James Harden, G

Paul George, F

Giannis Antetokounmpo, F

Nikola Jokic, C

The Second Team consists of:

Damian Lillard, G

Kyrie Irving, G

Kevin Durant, F

Kawhi Leonard, F

Joel Embiid, C

And the Third Team consists of:

Russell Westbrook, G

Kemba Walker, G

Lebron James, F

Blake Griffin, F

Rudy Gobert, C.

This article however, is going to be about who deserved the Second Team more, Russell Westbrook or Kyrie Irving. I’m going to be looking at season highs, records, playoff runs and season averages.

To start, we’ll have a look at both team’s season records, the Thunder had a bad start going 0-4 and finished the season with a record of 49-33 which was one game better than last season. They finished in the 6th seed of the Western Conference. They went 28-24 in their conference games, 27-14 at home, 22-19 on the road and ended the season on a 5 game win streak.

The Boston Celtics had the same record of 49-33, but they finished with the 4th seed in the East. They went 35-17 in their conference games, 28-13 at home and 21-20 on the road.

Next we have Westbrook and Irving’s season averages.

Westbrook averaged:

22.9 Points Per Game,

10.7 Assists Per Game,

1.5 Offensive Rebounds Per Game,

9.6 Defensive Rebounds Per Game,

11.1 Total Rebounds Per Game,

1.9 Steals Per Game,

0.5 Blocks Per Game,

4.5 Turnovers Per Game,

And 3.4 Personal Fouls Per Game.

He also averaged a Field Goal Percentage Of .428, averaging 8.6 Field Goals Per Game whilst attempting 20.2 Field Goals Per Game. Westbrook also averaged 36.0 Minutes Per Game.

Kyrie averaged:

23.8 Points Per Game,

6.9 Assists Per Game,

1.1 Offensive Rebounds Per Game,

3.9 Defensive Rebounds Per Game,

5.0 Total Rebounds Per Game,

1.5 Steals Per Game,

0.5 Blocks Per Game,

2.6 Turnovers Per Game,

And 2.5 Personal Fouls Per Game.

He averaged a Field Goal Percentage of .487 averaging 9.0 Field Goals Per Game whilst attempting 18.5 Field Goals Per Game. He averaged 33.0 Minutes Per Game.

Next we’ll have a look at both players season highs.

Russell Westbrook season highs:

Points: 44

Assists: 24

Rebounds: 20

Steals: 6

Kyrie Irving Season Highs:

Points: 43

Assists: 18

Rebounds: 11.

Season high steals for or blocks for Kyrie are unavailable.

Finally, we have the playoffs runs.

The Thunder had their 3rd straight 1st Round exit against the Portland Trail Blazers going 1-4 and losing in game 5 due to Dame’s buzzer beater from 37ft.

The Celtics had a 2nd round exit against the Bucks after a 4-0 sweep against the Pacers in the 1st round. They then took game 1 against the Bucks and ended up losing 1-4.

Kyrie deserved the second team All NBA more because he was more efficient than Russ and his stats were better in most cases. Irving got the Celtics deeper in the playoffs and was better in almost every single category of play than Westbrook.

What do you guys think of this comparison? Who would you pick to the Second Team? Leave your thoughts below!