Thunder looking like contenders again
On the off chance that anyone was confused as to how and why the Oklahoma City Thunder could somehow lose their way, dropping 12 of their first 15 games this season and digging a hole so deep it was fair to wonder if they could get out, one need only to look at what took place Tuesday in Sacramento.
Reigning MVP Kevin Durant and three-time All-Star Russell Westbrook were back at it again against the Kings, decimating them with the same array of dazzling talent that was nowhere to be found early on when their injuries threatened to derail the Thunder's championship-caliber efforts yet again.
Seven consecutive wins, a ½ game to go in the Western Conference standings to get back in that playoff position that seemed improbable just a few weeks ago, and the stage is being set for what could be one of the most compelling postseasons in the history of Western (Conference) civilization.
To say the Thunder were without their two stars doesn't do it justice because, well, Durant and Westbrook are much more than that. They are the league's best tandem, a dynamic duo so great that they look capable of making a special kind of history this season if their recent play keeps up.
It's been nearly a half-century since the Boston Celtics' Bob Cousy and Bill Russell became the only NBA teammates to win MVP awards in consecutive seasons, but Westbrook has been on a tear so terrific of late that it's looking entirely possible.
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Westbrook, who missed 14 games with a broken right hand that was suffered two games in, is on a career-high pace in scoring (26.4 points per game) and rebounds (5.8 per) while also averaging 6.8 assists in the 11 games he has played thus far.
He has reached the 20-point, five-rebound, five-assist mark in each of the last nine games as well. But the truly transcendent part, the thing that separates Westbrook from so many of the MVP contenders who don't truly qualify as two-way talents, is his defense that has been nothing short of dominant.
In the past nine games since Westbrook returned, he has held opposing point guards to 31.2% shooting from the field (34-109 FGs). Seven of those nine opposing point guards were held below their season averages, the latest being the Kings' Darren Collison (six points on two-of-eight shooting; nearly 10 points fewer than his season average). The list of Westbrook victims is growing by the day: New Orleans' Jrue Holiday missed 11 of 17 shots against him on Dec. 2; Philadelphia's Michael Carter-Williams was 6-of-19 three days later; the Detroit Pistons' Brandon Jennings and the Milwaukee Bucks' Brandon Knight were held to single digits in the week that followed; Cleveland Cavaliers All-Star Kyrie Irving misfired on 14 of 21 attempts not long after; the Phoenix Suns' Eric Bledsoe went 4-of-12.
Along the way, with the Thunder cutting their deficit down to size with so much ease, Westbrook has been playing catch-up with the Stephen Currys, James Hardens, Marc Gasols, and Anthony Davis's of his world that had a headstart on the pursuit of the league's top individual achievement.
"I defend every night but I told myself in the summer time that I really needed to lock back in defensively and try to be the best defensive player in the league," Westbrook told USA TODAY Sports. "I think if you're going to be one of the best players to do it in this game you've got to be able to do it on both ends. That's just my opinion, and that's how I felt. So every night, regardless of who we're playing or who it is, my job is to lock down and to help my team. So that's what I've been doing.
"(The defense) is important man. For us to win games, we've got to defend. We can score with the best of them; we can do that every night. But I think defense is something that we've got to take pride in as a unit. It starts with me, and my job is to be able to come out and set the tone defensively and kind of keep going from there."
And simple as that, the Thunder are back for another crack at the title yet again. Only time will tell if their luck will finally change this time around.
It's been three years since a rapper who goes by the name of "Lil B" claimed he put a curse on Durant – a PR-ploy that Durant himself isn't afraid to chuckle at.
"If there's a curse on me, I'm sure everybody would want it," he said with a smile.
But Westbrook went down on Oct. 30 in a game against the Los Angeles Clippers. That came less than three weeks after it was revealed that Durant's broken right foot would keep him out for six to eight weeks. Five months earlier forward Serge Ibaka's ill-timed calf injury played a major part in the Thunder's Western Conference Finals loss to the San Antonio Spurs. Twenty-two months before that, Westbrook's meniscus tear in his right knee early on in the 2013 playoffs not only short-circuited that Thunder postseason but led to more knee trouble in the following season.
With all that, you couldn't help but wonder who put the hex on. Yet to their credit, a pity party was never in the plans.
This latest uphill climb was no different, with all involved insisting they never feared the season was lost even amid the mountain of evidence that it most certainly was.
"I really felt like we had nothing to worry about," Durant, who is averaging 21.5 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 3.8 assists in the eight games since his return, told USA TODAY Sports. "We all were like that. We knew we could (do it). We've got confidence.
"I'm not going to say that we're going out there and we're going to win the championship guaranteed, but we're confident."
Said Westbrook: "I never had a doubt from Day One. I constantly kept saying that two weeks ago, just come in every day and keep working at it. There was no way we were going to win 10 games in one night. We had to come in every day and be consistent with what we were doing as a team. We knew we were getting guys back and getting guys healthy. As we continue to find our rhythm, we're going to continue to get better and better. I never had one doubt in my mind that we'd put ourselves in the position to get into the playoffs."
The Thunder's fortunes, as always, having everything to do with their medical chart.
"I'm blessed to be back and to be healthy and playing again," Westbrook said.
