When Russell Westbrook gets into that special kind of zone, few, if any in the NBA are capable of impeding his comet-like attack of the basket. The New Orleans Pelicans found this out the hard way on Wednesday night, as Westbrook single-handedly disposed of them en route to a 45-point, six-rebound, six-assist night.
As a person with a slimmer of rooting interest towards the Pelicans, it was painful to watch, but as a fan of the NBA, it was a spectacular showing of a great player not backing down when his team needs him most. And for all of the garbage that Westbrook has to put up with the national and even local media, I was happy for him.
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Playing the Oklahoma City Thunder without Kevin Durant on Wednesday night, the Pelicans had a chance to clinch the season series from OKC and thus have a leg up in the dreadful race for the eighth seed in the Western Conference.
Instead, they find themselves in a seemingly must-win game (at least as much of a must-win that you will have in the NBA in February) against a Thunder team that is hot on their heels. Another loss to Oklahoma City on Friday would place the Pelicans and Thunder in a dead heat in the playoff race. The Pelicans’ edge in the head-to-head tiebreaker would also be relinquished.
Knocking off a motivated Thunder team in Oklahoma City with an especially balls-to-the-wall version of Westbrook is no easy task. Analysts and people in the Twittersphere will say Hey, you just have to prevent Russell from penetrating, that’s the key to the whole offense. All he does is run around and shoot jumpers and drive towards the hoop.
What groundbreaking analysis that is. Take some notes Monty and whoever gets the privilege of guarding Mr. Westbrook, because that is all you have to do to stop him! Prevent him from getting into the lane and you are golden.
Containing Westbrook obviously is phase one of the winning formula for New Orleans on Friday night, but there other factors to take into consideration as well.
Remember that even despite the heroics of Westbrook on Wednesday, the Pelicans were still winning with five minutes left in the fourth quarter before undergoing a scoring drought that would make a college frat bro cringe.
(Wait for it…. There it is.)
If New Orleans is able to clean up their late game offense (it’s been an issue for them all season) they should be able to come away from Oklahoma City with a victory. Running the Thunder’s shooters off three-point line is a must, assuming that Westbrook will be piercing the teeth of the defense like a mad man.
Westbrook is just as likely to shoot his team out of a game as he is to shoot his team to victory. The Pelicans can let him get his as much as he pleases, but it is imperative that they corral the role players (let Dion Waiters shoot as much as he wants!) to limit the damage.
If the Pelicans want to continue the narrative of crashing the postseason party (the chances of this are coming tantalizingly more real with every ridiculous play Anthony Davis makes) Friday night must be treated like a must-win.
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