Russell Westbrook Isn't Done Yet
Westbrook probably: “the reports of my death are greatly exaggerated."
Don’t call it a comeback! It’s a tad premature to either herald the demise of Russell Westbrook as a great NBA player or proclaim that the first month and change of the season was nothing more than an injury-beset aberration. But over two nights this past weekend, Westbrook looked like the player of old, mad dashing to the rim without care and hoisting up ill-advised jumpers in his typical fashion. This time, though, he finished through traffic, got to the foul line, and even knocked down a game-winning three, features of his game that had worryingly faded since arriving in Washington. Going 1-1 in said games isn’t going to set the league on fire—it is the Wizards after all—but Westbrook’s always been a terrific entertainer above all else. And with a come-from-behind win over the Oklahoma City Nets, he had another Gladiator moment in a career awash in them.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise then that Westbrook’s return to form came directly after a blowout loss to the Houston Rockets, a.k.a. the team that traded him away and hasn’t missed him. He and John Wall talked some trash, but Wall and the Rockets played better, putting a neat and tidy bow on a trade most hated and have since used to disparage Westbrook even more. Ahh, the casual sadness of the NBA, when two beloved stars in decline are reduced to a sadistic game of which bloated contract is less damaging to their respective organization. Houston got a pick and the W, and the narrative peters out there. Hashtag this league!
The following performance was much better against the Atlanta Hawks, even if the result was the same. That pesky Trae Young, headlining the next generation of entertaining guards the league apparatus wants to collapse under the weight of lofty expectations, playing “not basketball” en route to 41 points and 17 free-throw attempts was too much for one of the league’s most porous defenses. Regardless, it was Westbrook’s best game in a Wiz uniform, evidence of how low the bar is to clear—where a best game includes a fourth-quarter ejection—and a welcome reminder of what a healthier, still athletically diminished Russ can be at age 32.
Sunday night against Brooklyn was the real treat and, as he is wont to do, Westbrook stepped up like only he can. Washington was down pretty much the entire game with Kevin Durant and Joe Harris taking turns never missing. Perhaps inspired by the opponent, Bradley Beal did his best James Harden in his Finals Days as a Rocket impression, looking disinterested and isolated throughout the first half. Only thing missing was the fat suit. Davis Bertans continued his concerning role as player who signs a big-money deal and then their play falls off a cliff. The promising youngsters, Rui Hachimura and Deni Avdija, did what inexperienced players on bad teams do. Not much.
No, this was a vintage Westbrook putting the team on his back through sheer force game. At least until Beal woke up in the fourth quarter, surely stunned into action upon realizing his team had an outside chance at winning an actual basketball game. Westbrook, with his distinctive high-octane energy, was everywhere through four quarters, never allowing Washington to fully slip away. He got a putback off his own miss and comfortably stepped into threes that fit the flow of the offense. He repeatedly took advantage of weaker guards on the low block for easy layups and exploited mismatches off the pick and roll for himself and to the benefit of his big men. A steal in the backcourt, a block on Durant, and a bevy of tough layups. It was a heartwarming performance, reminiscent of his best days, and yet another kernel of hope that Westbrook can play at a high level for a few more seasons. 41 points on efficient shooting (16-28), four threes, ten rebounds, and two blocks is a classic Westbrook performance, made all too rare by his recent injury misfortune. And he can’t even be blamed for stat chasing, falling two assists short of a triple double.
Despite Westbrook’s herculean effort, it looked like it wasn’t going to be enough, a recurrent bug in his big games where, like his backcourt mate, he doesn’t always turn them into wins. He can’t carry them like he used to. Kyrie Irving makes two free throws, pushing the Net lead to five with 12.3 seconds left, and the postgame takes write themselves. Washington plays inspired ball off the back of Westbrook and Beal but falls short due to Brooklyn’s unrelenting star power. Not quite.
Instead, Beal took the ball straight down the middle of the court, pulled up from deep, and cashed it to bring Washington within two with seven seconds left. Garrison Mathews stole the ensuing inbounds pass, a horrific misconnection between Harris and Durant, and hot potatoed it over to Westbrook, who checked his feet and launched a three. Bang! A missed layup on the other end and, somehow some way, the 4-win Wizards have two wins over the Nets. For a team as devastated by “Health and Safety Protocols” and injury issues as Washington, it’s a meaningful win to help commence the colossal effort of turning this dismal season around.
But it’s also meaningful for the story of Westbrook and how awesome it is to see him performing well against the best. Westbrook knows better than anyone that two good games aren’t enough to change the narrative of a slow and painful decline, let alone years of criticism for failing to modify your game for the betterment of the team and your future. At this point and maybe not until deep into retirement, nobody’s changing their notions of Westbrook. Still, that showing with that ending was oh so needed, and the yells coming from Westbrook revealed how important it was to him. Or he just likes to yell, but you get my point.
Even better that it came against the Nets in a bizarre reunion of one of the league’s greatest what could’ve been teams, the early 2010s OKC Thunder. Harden missed out with a thigh contusion, leaving Westbrook, Durant, and Jeff Green to handle the emotional baggage of facing off against a former teammate. It can’t escape Westbrook what it would say about his own career should Harden and Durant lead the Nets to a championship, even how brutally unfair that would be to him. Westbrook seized the opportunity, one of the few he’ll have, to upset Durant and the storylines swirling around all of them. Save the title talk for the playoffs. Forget the sizes of contracts that organizations are more than willing to give to players. In the dog days of this miserable season, Russ was Russ for a night, and no one could do anything about it.