Russell Westbrook Reminds Us of His, Thunder’s Excellence
By David Ramil
Subtract a superstar from most NBA teams and what you have left is usually a collection of role players, middling talent and unrealized potential. Russell Westbrook’s 45-point outing against the New Orleans Pelicans on Wednesday shatters that mold, reminding us how great he is as a player and how the OKC Thunder are truly an elite team.
OKC’s season has been an inconsistent, injury-riddled mess – very promising on one night and then reeking of desperation the next. A loss to the New York Knicks just over a week ago had many sounding the death knell early. Or, at the very least, breaking out the polish for a bell to be rung later, probably by mid-April, when the regular season will end and the Thunder would surely find themselves out of the playoff picture.
Westbrook would rather you never hear the chimes ringing, defying expectations and carrying the team single-handedly in Kevin Durant’s absence.
Remove Durant from another team and you have the 2010-2011 Cleveland Cavaliers, a team struggling to find an identity as they reeled from the loss of LeBron James. While James would go on to successfully chase championships amid the ocean breezes of South Beach, the Cavs would limp through a 19-win season that included a 26-game losing streak.
Take away Durant from this year’s Thunder team, as has been the case for all but 22 games, and that leaves you in awe of Westbrook’s brilliance and continued development of a superstar.
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His 45 points against the Pelicans matched a career-high that he’d previously set on March 23, 2012 against the Minnesota Timberwolves. That game, 149-140 double-overtime win, featured Durant scoring 40 points of his own, not to mention James Harden’s 22 points off the bench.
On Wednesday, the Thunder’s second-leading scorer was Anthony Morrow, with just 14 points.
It’s easy to dismiss Westbrook’s production as simply “getting his” – after all, it’s the NBA and the talent is widespread. Even lottery-bound teams have a leading scorer, as Kevin Love often was with those defensively-challenged Minnesota teams. But how Westbrook achieved the feat, all while single-handedly leading the team to victory is what makes the numbers so impressive.
The shot chart below reflects his first 45-point game from three years ago:
Impressive, without a doubt, but less so given Westbrook’s nearly-unparalleled speed and athleticism. Two made 3-pointers and two shots from just outside the restricted area show his limited range. A career 30 percent shooter from 3-point range, you would think that Westbrook was, simply, “feeling it” against the Timberwolves. His 13 made field goals at the rim are astounding, as is 9-of-9 shooting from the free throw line.
Stack that up against his explosion against the Pelicans and you see his development immediately:
The shooting is spread out, expanded to include his deadly mid-range jumper; he added 7-of-9 free throw shooting to the mix, as well. Perhaps most impressive about Westbrook’s night is that, for a player who’s become virtually synonymous with rim-shattering slams, not one of his 18 made field goals resulted from a dunk.
Not a single one.
Moreover, his production was as timely as it was gaudy. 45 points in a blowout loss is one thing but Westbrook scored or assisted on seven of the Thunder’s final nine field goals, all with just under seven minutes to play in a tightly-contested game with playoff implications. The end result was a 102-91 victory over one of the teams that stands in the way of OKC’s hunt for the postseason.
"“I received a text from KD before the game…He told me to lead this team.”"
Ultimately, the Thunder might not make the playoffs. The Western Conference is a constant minefield of talent and there’s a lot of battleground still yet to cross. But a team that loses a player of Durant’s caliber while still being led by someone like Westbrook…
It’s a luxury that puts the Thunder well-beyond the group of other championship contenders into an elite class all by themselves.