Russell Westbrook’s ‘phenomenal’ effort in crunch time lifts Clippers to Game 1 win
PHOENIX — The car carrying Russell Westbrook arrived at the empty practice facility housing Arizona State University’s basketball programs at 7 p.m. Saturday.
In a season unlike any other in Westbrook’s 15-year NBA career, the former most valuable player who been without a team in February began a night like any other. For 45 minutes, he continued the ritual he said he has followed for years, but rarely discussed: a late-night, solo workout to help find his rhythm, feel confident in his preparation and clear his mind.
When Westbrook is in Los Angeles, he waits until his three children are asleep, then dips out of the house. Sometimes his destination is Lawndale, inside the Leuzinger High gym where he starred as a teen. On Saturday, the Clippers arranged time for him at the same Arizona State facility where only hours earlier the team had practiced.
After twists and turns, Kawhi Leonard and Kevin Durant will square off in a playoff series for the first time since they briefly met in the 2019 NBA Finals.
“Since I been in the league, the hardest thing to do is be consistent,” he told The Times. “I got to find ways to stay consistent throughout all season, steady in my craft. I learned that at a young age and I’ll continue doing that regardless of bad games, good games. But consistent over time, it will pay off.”
Twenty hours later, inside a downtown arena raging with noise, it did during a 115-110, series-opening Clippers victory over the fourth-seeded Suns.
Amid a three-of-19 shooting night, Westbrook never hesitated when Kevin Durant’s long-armed defense denied an easy entry pass to Kawhi Leonard with 17 seconds left. Backing down Phoenix’s Devin Booker in the post, the Clippers nursing a one-point lead, Westbrook drew a foul with 17 seconds to play. As he walked to the line to shoot his first free throws of the game, Westbrook went back to the previous night.
“I’m like, oh yeah, I envisioned myself like, OK, I was in the gym by myself last night and before I left the court, I hit two free throws,” Westbrook said. “Knocked them down.”
Westbrook made both again Sunday, then sealed the victory with his defense. Isolating against Westbrook at the top of the key, Booker drove to his left but Westbrook stripped the ball before he could attempt a shot with 10 seconds to play.
The threat was ended, the game stolen, a 1-0 series lead seized.
The Clippers led by as many as 16 in the first half, but in a series where coach Tyronn Lue acknowledged “we don’t have a lot of margin for error,” they made two more baskets and four more field goals and allowed 11 fewer shots.
With 38 points in 42 minutes, Leonard did the heavy lifting necessary on offense to carry a team that is not expected to have Paul George back from his right knee sprain during the first round. After carefully monitoring his workload during his first season back from knee surgery, Leonard was allowed to push the limit to claim the team’s first Game 1 victory in a playoff series in Lue’s three seasons.
“That’s what we’ve been saving up for,” Lue said.
With 12 points and 15 rebounds, center Ivica Zubac outplayed his counterpart, Deandre Ayton. Norman Powell (14 points) and Terance Mann (10) scored efficiently off the bench, shooting a combined seven of nine inside the arc.
Eric Gordon’s 12 first-quarter points took pressure off of Leonard, then made a vital 27-foot three with 93 seconds left to push the Clippers ahead 109-103.
But by helping hound Durant into missing his first five shots, blocking his shot from behind and poking away his dribble, and grabbing five of his 10 rebounds in the fourth quarter, Westbrook emerged as an unlikely hero, adding nine points and eight assists. The point guard at times attempted the kind of jump shots early in the shot clock that he had otherwise studiously avoided since mid-February, after he was traded by the Lakers, bought out in Utah and joined the Clippers on an end-of-season minimum contract.
He was not perfect. But his timing was.
“Making winning plays, getting deflections, offensive rebounding… it’s playoff basketball,” Leonard said. “You might not have your best night shooting, but you gotta impact the game some type of way. He did that tonight.”
Lue told Westbrook during the game not to be frustrated by his shooting, a message Westbrook said he was grateful to hear.
“You bring us way more than scoring the basketball,” Lue had said. Westbrook, he added, was “phenomenal.”
And Lue showed he trusted him. After sitting Westbrook with four minutes to play in the third quarter as Phoenix was scoring 15 unanswered points to lead by seven, the Clippers outscored the Suns by 10 over the next seven minutes. Knowing Leonard needed a breather, Lue inserted Westbrook. It was a gamble considering the flow of the game since Westbrook had taken a seat, yet when Leonard returned after two minutes, the Clippers’ lead had held steady at three.
Westbrook stayed in not because his offense ever recovered, but because he was “too good defensively,” Lue said, and because of his rebounding acumen. With 2:43 to play, Westbrook collected a miss by Gordon and found Leonard for a three-pointer that pushed the Clippers’ lead to four.
Injuries to Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, as well as problems with consistency, have the Clippers as underdogs when the playoffs start Sunday in Phoenix.
During his lengthy and decorated career, Westbrook’s pride has manifested itself at times as both fuel and a flaw. He believes he is “one of those guys that can do everything each and every night,” he said. That never wavered, he said, while he was a man without a team in February, believing he still had a place in the league.
“I have tremendous faith and I’m really grateful to lean on God and his faith,” Westbrook said. “I knew I would have an opportunity. Didn’t know where it would be, I just wanted to make sure I was ready to go and working out the whole time and was locked in.”
He was when the Clippers needed it in Game 1.
“It’s amazing man, I can’t ask for nothing more,” Westbrook said. “My job is now to lay this s— on the line, and make something happen.”
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