Russell Westbrook had not yet given a good performance in the series against Utah Jazz – on or off the court. In game 5, however, he once again proved how much genius accompanies his “madness” despite everything.
“Not tonight! Not tonight!”
Russell Westbrook’s message arrived, probably to all those present at the Chesapeake Energy Arena. The season of the Thunder should not end, at least not yet on this day. Not in your own hall, not in front of your own followers, and certainly not in this way.
It had been embarrassing how OKC had sold in the first half and in parts of the third quarter when the guests built up a 25-point lead. Of course this had to do with Westbrook himself – the still reigning MVP conducts the offense at OKC, even if there wasn’t much to see at first. Isolations from one player followed isolations from another player, the jazz seemed almost confused, how easy it was made for them. OKC seemed more and more ready to say goodbye to the holidays.
But that did not apply to their leader. Not so, Westbrook must have thought. Not tonight. And if he had to take 100 litters, he wouldn’t surrender without a fight. So he decided to take matters into his own hands. What followed was hard to believe. And it clearly showed why Westbrook is such a cult figure on the one hand and such an Enigma for NBA fans on the other.
Westbrook is – no secret – the most polarizing player in the NBA. There is hardly anyone who doesn’t have an explicit opinion about Westbrook – you love or hate him, often not much fits in between. For both points of view, the current series against Utah has become a kind of microcosm.
His performance off court has been unfortunate in the last few days, to say the least – only when he said publicly that he would cancel Ricky Rubio, then after the next game he complained that the reporters explicitly asked questions about this duel. He also played far below his potential and seemed to be more concerned with topics like Rubio than with the outcome of the game.
The game of the Thunder reflected this – that’s why they were already at risk of an early holiday in their fifth game. One could use many explanations for this, the absence of Andre Roberson or the “achievements” of Carmelo Anthony, for example, but in the end, of course, as always, most roads led to Westbrook. If you act the way you do, you’ll also attract malice if things don’t work out.
But there is also the other side. In game 5, the Thunder won after 25 points behind – and the comeback bore Westbrook’s signature in every respect. Not least of all, of course, because he started it himself with two threes. In the next attack, he served Paul George for a layup. Then it was Westbrook’s turn again, once, twice. Within three minutes the Thunder had already made up 12 points.
And so it went on – Utah just couldn’t get access to Westbrook anymore, just after Rudy Gobert went out with Foul-Trouble and the way to the basket became a lot clearer. It was so fast that you had to keep looking at the clock – OKC had already balanced the match at the end of the quarter.
Westbrook scored 20 points in the round. They felt like 40, because with each further throw the energy came back into an arena that was almost silent shortly before. When Westbrook is in his zone, OKC home games regularly mutate into heavy metal concerts. Game 5 was a particularly loud one.
It is often almost forgotten because so many fundamental debates are being held about Russ, but one simple reality is that if Westbrook attacks, he is unstoppable. No one can stay in front of him, the defender’s hope is rather that Russ plays an unclean pass or simply misses. If the roll is like in this game, good advice is expensive.
Westbrook is one of the few players who can dictate the outcome of a game with their will. Game 5 made that clearer than almost every game in his career so far: In the last 20:30 minutes Russ ALLEINE won the duel against Utah with 33:28. Westbrook did not want to see his season finished yet, so he prevented the elimination together with the also brilliant George.
The two superstars scored 79 points together – the rest of the team scored 28 points. It was almost silly because everyone knew what would happen in every attack, and yet the Jazz couldn’t stop Russ and PG-13. “We were in attack mode all the time, and we did a great job,” Westbrook summed it up himself.
Of course, other factors also played a role here. First and foremost Gobert’s foul problems – the Frenchman had also intimidated Russ on the basket seen over the series, his impact was clearly noticeable in this game as well. When Gobert was on the court, the Jazz had an outstanding defensive rating of 89.9, without him a rather pathetic (133.5).
In the final phase his impact was also a bit limited, as he was playing with 5 fouls and therefore could not act as physically as usual. Whereby Westbrook and George appeared at this time anyway so in rhythm and above all so self-confident that at least in this game it probably wouldn’t have made any difference anymore.
“That was all our pride,” George explained afterwards. “We’re not losing here. This audience has not given up on us. We felt that. The energy in the hall was incredible.”
So the Thunder survived – the question now is what does that mean for the rest of the series. At the two games in Salt Lake City the Thunder sold very badly, also the Jazz have a home advantage not to be sneezed at. Gobert will probably be a little more careful with his fouls. And last but not least, jazz still seems more like a well-rehearsed team.
OKC, on the other hand, is facing a problem that you could see coming months ago. Again weak Anthony saw almost the complete comeback from the bank and fought loudly with assistant coach Maurice Cheeks because he wanted to return to the game. It was no coincidence that OKC could only play “Heavy Metal” offensively and defensively when Melo was sitting on the bench. Even if, of course, he wasn’t the cause of all the problems before.
It remains to be seen what happens if coach Billy Donovan reduces Anthony’s playing time in game 6 again. And all the other questions, such as George’s future or Westbrook’s ability to work in a team, naturally remain. But thanks to a classic “Russell Westbrook Experience” they don’t have to be answered yet.
Not tonight.