Russell Westbrook being a man in a hurry and all, he has needed only four games to show his newest coach, David Adelman, what the full Russ Experience entails. It is, as the nine coaches before him have learned, a flight to a tropical paradise through six hours of turbulence and which may at any moment be rerouted to Gary, Indiana.
Saturday, though, it was paradise after all. Westbrook made enough superb and silly plays in tandem, including a few of each in overtime, to guide the Denver Nuggets to a 112-110 victory that was, as the Brits like to say, very much “against the run of play.” Westbrook’s damp dynamite stylings have led people to consider him hyperwashed for several years now because he is capable of such seismographically comedic highs and lows, and yet Adelman has come to rely upon (if not entirely trust) Westbrook. Westbrook played 34 minutes Saturday, including the final 23 minutes that encapsulated half the third quarter and all of the fourth and overtime.
And he will be trusted similarly in Game 2 Monday night, we’d bet, because of the competitive highs—like the three baskets he scored late in the fourth quarter to put Denver ahead for the first time since the game was in single digits, and the deflection of the Nicolas Batum inbound pass with nine seconds left that resulted in Los Angeles’ 20th and final turnover. The Clippers are the wise guys’ favorites this spring, which of course ignores their historical Clipperhood, while the Nuggets are a minefield, but here we are instead marveling askance at the mercurial Westbrook’s apogee.
As you might expect, he was defiant in victory when he was asked about L.A.’s willingness to let him be the person to end every Denver possession. ESPN’s stats weirdo colony measured the distance between Westbrook at the three-point line and the closest Clipper at nearly 10 feet, as if to say they would defend him at the arc less diligently than they would Stan Kroenke. “Yeah, yeah,” Westbrook said when asked about the Clippers’ plan. “We can talk about that more when we take care of business.” By the way, Westbrook ended the night missing 12 of his 17 shots and four of his six threes, so the strategy wasn’t exactly mocked by the evidence.
But the truth remains that Westbrook giveth more than he taketh away, including when he dribbled into traffic, jumped in the air, and tried unconvincingly to throw the ball off Harden’s foot before he came down at the end of regulation. On this occasion his takings were most conspicuous at the most opportune moments. More to the point, Adelman signed off on the Russ Experience when the Nuggets were in the midst of their comeback from a dreadful start and kept him on the floor for those 23 uninterrupted minutes because he saw a need for Westbrook’s speed, and he spoke afterward as though he knew all about it based on 79 games as Mike Malone’s assistant and the temp job he currently holds.
“Russ is Russ,” he told ESPN yarn-spinner Ramona Shelburne. “Defensively he was absolutely incredible. He was playing free safety out there. I thought a lot of the reasons why the [Clipper] turnovers happened, even if it wasn’t him forcing it, just the way he was roaming around and impacting the game, it was great for us. Then offensively, a couple of times I thought he attacked, maybe we could have pulled it out and executed, but that’s what Russ does. He’s going to play in attack mode. I don’t think he’s going to change after 17 years.”
No, Westbrook will go out as he came in, and those who have employed him before and employ him now either get the deal or make feeble pretend denials. Even his explanation of the deflection of Batum’s pass that glanced off James Harden that iced the game for Denver said more than he might have intended but did indeed cover the depth and breadth of the Russ Experience.
“I know that play,” Westbrook said, hearkening back to his year with the Clippers last season. “They have a dynamic roller with [center Ivica Zubac], great cutters and guys that catch lobs. My job is to be able to be the low man and find ways to, excuse my language, fuck shit up.”
There you go. That’s the Russ we all have known for a decade and a half. Westbrook’s ability to FSU covers both teams at all times. That’s the sign-in. He could very well be the reason why the Nuggets lose Game 2 because of the giveth/taketh dynamic that has been his M.O. for nearly his entire career. In fairness to him, though, it’s not like he’s been trying to keep it a secret all these years. He’s just a hard-working guy near the end of his run seeing S that needs to be FU’d, and woe betide the employer or, like Saturday, the opponent who doesn’t understand that.
