Phoenix – Russell Westbrook ran in to steal the ball from Kevin Durant, sending Durant crashing to the floor on his bottom.
Durant winced in agony for a few moments before heading to the free-throw line at the footprint center in Phoenix as thousands of Suns fans in orange jerseys held their breath. Westbrook quickly walked away from the scene, apparently uninterested, and waited for Durant to begin filming.
The sequence played out like two passionate opponents fighting each other in an elimination game – which it technically was. Westbrook’s Clippers were on their last chance for survival in the first round of the playoff series. But it was also a match between two men who had spent nearly a decade together as teammates, making the NBA Finals in 2012 with Oklahoma City as the 23-year-olds were tasked with carrying a new small-town franchise.
“You know Ross is a fierce competitor, so when he sees K it’s always about trying to play super hard,” said Suns guard Cameron Payne, who played for Westbrook and Durant on the Thunder.
Payne added, “Maybe in the regular season, he’ll go help him out, but you never know with Ross. Like playing with him in OKC, he was big on how I have 15 guys on the team, and I’m with 15 guys, so that’s the competitive stuff I was talking about.” about her “.
It was another baffling moment in a rocky affair.
The Durant Suns won decisive Game 5 on Tuesday, 136-130, stopping a late comeback attempt by the Clippers and advancing to the second round. Phoenix will play the top seeded Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference Semifinals starting Saturday. Suns guard Devin Booker led all scorers with 47 points. Durant added 31, and Westbrook had 14.
Eleven years ago, Durant and Westbrook led former Oklahoma City teams into the playoffs against future Hall of Famers Dirk Nowitzki, Kobe Bryant, and Tim Duncan and headed to the NBA Finals with LeBron James and the Miami Heat. The Heat easily defeated the Thunder in five games, as Miami’s experience and star power proved too much for the upstart Thunder.
As quick as the loss was, it seemed to indicate that Durant and Westbrook would come back and win championships together; They seemed too talented to do that.
But they didn’t. Durant and Westbrook have individual awards: They each won MVP awards and several NBA awards, but they have never reached another Finals together. Durant left for the Warriors in 2016 after the Thunder blew a three-games-to-one lead in the Western Conference Finals against Golden State.
In their second match against each other after Durant’s departure, Westbrook yelled at his teammates and told them not to talk to Durant. They avoided questions about each other. Even former teammates like James Harden, who played for them in Oklahoma City, said they were “grown up guys” and had to “figure it out on their own.”
Since then, they have each been in several teams. Durant won two championships with the Warriors, then headed to the net, and now Phoenix. Westbrook played on several teams that were supposed to be title contenders—the Rockets, Lakers, and Clippers—but none of them made it. As Durant blossomed, Westbrook began to be seen as past his prime, no longer the player who could win teams and average triple-doubles, and become the butt of fan jokes when he struggled.
But in this playoff series against the Suns, Westbrook proved he can still be a difference maker. Westbrook signed with the Clippers in February as a free agent after the Lakers traded him to Utah, where he was released, at best, as the Clippers’ third choice behind superstars Paul George and Kawhi Leonard. But injuries to George and Leonard made Westbrook the first-choice scoring player against the Suns, and he was often the team’s best defender and defender.
He finished the series averaging 23.6 points, 7.6 rebounds and 7.4 assists per game, looking like a version of his old self, and had a block on Booker in the Clippers’ Game 1 victory.
“When he retires, people are really going to tell the truth about how they feel about his game,” Durant said after Game 4, when Westbrook had 37 points. “Right now, the fun thing to do is make Ross a joke. But the way he plays since he played for the Clippers shows everyone who he really is.”
After Game 5, Westbrook reflected on Durant’s comments, with an introspective answer that sounded like an offer for teams to sign him this summer.
“I think I’m a player who makes mistakes like everyone else,” Westbrook said. “I miss shots like everybody else. I turn the ball over like everybody else. But I do a lot of things that a lot of people can’t do, and I’ve done a lot of things that people in this league haven’t done.”
For Durant, this series and these playoffs have a different meaning in the eyes of some basketball fans: proving he can win the title without Golden State’s Stephen Curry and as the team’s MVP. However, Durant said he doesn’t feel that pressure because he does “Nothing to prove.”
The Boston Celtics embarrassed Durant and the Nets last season in the first round of the playoffs, sweeping them without too much trouble. Boston star Jason Tatum outplayed Durant, scoring plenty while also defending Durant.
And then, in the NBA Finals, the Curry Warriors beat a Boston team that handily beat Durant earlier in the postseason.
In Tuesday’s win, Durant disappeared for most of the fourth quarter, going scoreless for nearly 10 minutes as Booker controlled the ball and the Clippers closed in for the lead. As the postseason continues, how the Suns win — with Durant driving or with Booker, or whoever — will add fodder to the debate about Durant’s place as one of the all-time best players.
That was evident on Tuesday, as Suns coach Monty Williams made sure to acknowledge it in his post-game press conference. But Williams also said he was at fault for Durant’s lack of touches at the end of the game.
“I have to figure out ways to get him into space so he can catch the ball freely and be able to go,” said Williams.
As the game ended, Westbrook had several long hugs with Suns players and coaches on the field, but it didn’t reach Durant. Instead, Westbrook left the floor alone, with a hand raised to the fans as he walked out, while Durant gave a televised interview on the other end of the court.