The Thunder were down by 14 points to the Magic halfway through the fourth quarter. They had been down 21 in the third. This was also their third game in four nights.
They lost by 12 against the Rockets three days before,
when Russell Westbrook
scored 18 points in the fourth quarter and at one point brought his
team to within nine after the Thunder had been down by 20-plus. They
beat the Mavericks
a day later after being down by 13 points with 3:30 left in the game,
and Westbrook scored 16 of the Thunder’s last 18 points. In the fourth
quarter overtime against the Magic on Wednesday night, he scored 26
points.
Westbrook’s game-tying shot was an otherwise reckless
transition three over two defenders with mere seconds left on the clock.
But he was hot. And no one else on that team deserved the glory or
burden of that shot more than him. The basket put him at 50 points. He
would go on to have 57 total, the most points ever scored while recording a triple-double.
There’s an entry in Kafka’s Blue Octavo Notebooks
where he writes: "Atlas was permitted the opinion that he was at
liberty, if he wished, to drop the Earth and creep away; but this
opinion was all that he was permitted."
The Thunder are 31-7 when Westbrook has a triple-double.
They have only won 43 games total. What he does — these consistently
ridiculous performances that have to be reduced and boxed into the
category of “triple-double” to be more easily understood — is wholly out
of necessity.
The Thunder needed Westbrook to have a
once-in-a-generation season, otherwise they would be lost. They needed
him to score 19 points in the fourth, or they would have lost to the
Magic. They needed him to be their be-all and end-all, because that is
the only way that they can survive, much less thrive.
Inflated rebound numbers be damned
— this is not a case of stats padding. Westbrook could very well do
less, but he would do so knowing that his team would more likely lose.
He could satisfy the critics and preserve himself by lessening his
burden of carrying the team, but he would be purposely putting the
Thunder in a vulnerable position. For someone who wants to win every
game, that is not an option, not even in overtime during his third game
in four days.
Westbrook does not have empty triple-doubles, he has “I will drag us as far as I can” triple-doubles.
This effort against the Magic makes the swipe that the Rockets took at his season seem even sillier.
There is nothing bad that can be said about James Harden,
and there’s no need to admonish him in favor of Westbrook. He is having
a fantastic season of his own, and if he wins MVP, he would deserve it.
Harden has done wonders for the Rockets while raising his play to
incredible and unforeseen levels. Anyone who besmirches someone to
praise another lacks a strong argument, and is probably just a hater.
But we’ve gotten to a point in the MVP argument where Westbrook is disregarded because he’s not as efficient as Harden, because he’s not the playmaker in a Mike D'Antoni offense, because of a small percentage difference — 3 percent — in uncontested rebounds.
We’re also at a point where certain stats about how each
team’s offense performs without the two MVP candidates on the court, and
how much each player raises his team’s play when they do come in the
game, are being ignored for devious reasons — where advanced statistics
are no longer being used to illuminate, but rather to wash away wonder
and push an agenda of expertise.
When a player is averaging a triple-double for the season
— something that has only been done once before, in a league that has
had the likes of Michael Jordan and LeBron James
— and the feat is dismissed as empty numbers, then there’s a problem.
When an argument against Westbrook is that the Thunder — who should
realistically be chasing the eighth or seventh seed, and not the fourth —
are not one of the top two teams in the league, then there’s a huge problem. And that problem is not Russell Westbrook.
Just as you do not judge a fish by its ability to climb a
tree, Westbrook should not be judged by the standards of Harden. Just
as Harden should not be judged on the merits of Kawhi Leonard. And
Leonard on LeBron James. They are not the same kinds of players, and
they are not doing the same things. Harden is leading a resurgent team
that is designed to take high quality shots, and he’s doing so at an
unprecedented level.
Westbrook is not perfect, and he could certainly be more
efficient, but he is also being asked to be an entire offense on his
own. He is being asked to be a savior. It’s a role that fits him as much
as being a genius facilitator fits Harden. The savior role indulges
Westbrook’s ego and defiant attitude. He’s also one of the few players
who can handle a team’s failures squarely on his shoulders. The same
reason why he takes transition threes over two defenders is the same
reason he is perfect for this Thunder team: Westbrook fantastically
believes he can do it all. He’s so confident that he can, that the idea
and fear of failure doesn’t seem to register for him.
The theme of the Thunder this season has been a simple
and urgent plea: “Westbrook, please save us.” That’s how it was against
the Rockets, the Mavericks, and the Magic. When other players would
scoff at having to exhaust himself every game just to give his team a
chance at winning, Westbrook embraces the challenge. He entered this
situation without Durant, without Serge Ibaka,
with only an outside chance of making the playoffs — whether down
20-plus points, 13 points with three minutes left, or 14 points in the
fourth — and asked why not? Why not the Thunder? And especially why not
him?
Westbrook is not James Harden. He doesn’t have to be.
He is Russell Westbrook, and he is doing things this
season that should only be possible in Japanese anime. There is no need
to do mental and analytical gymnastics to reason yourself out of the
wonder of his season. He has scored the most points ever in a
triple-double, and he has gone perfect from the field in another one. He has snatched victory away from other teams by sheer will, as he did against the Mavericks and Magic, and against the Grizzlies when he scored 15 points with 2:35 left to play. He has done that and so much more, so that every Thunder game is a must-watch just to see what he comes up with next.
That is his case for MVP. The only reason that the
Thunder are in the playoffs — why they’re even a subject of discussion —
is that Westbrook refused to let them fall apart. If he should win MVP,
and he deserves it as much as Harden does, it is because he’s willing
and capable of having a once in a lifetime season — full of absurd
numbers, shattered records, and unimaginable comebacks — to push himself
and his team as far as they’ll go. That is something to be rewarded,
not disparaged.
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