Apr 12, 2015 5 min read Featured

Pacers withstand Westbrook’s career night, 116-104

INDIANAPOLIS — You should’ve come to terms with this sometime in mid-March, but tonight’s game against the Pacers served as a quality reminder that this is, in fact, just simply not the Thunder’s season.

Start with two banked-in 3s for the Pacers. Or that the Thunder missed 17 freaking free throws in a game that was within three with three minutes left. Or that on a night Russell Westbrook absolutely ran his body into the ground, he also picked up a sketchy 16th technical foul, earning him a one-game suspension.

The good news, if there is any, is the Pelicans also lost, giving the Thunder some remaining glimmer of hope. It’s down to the final two games, one of which Westbrook might not play.

“I’m pretty confident that one will be rescinded,”Scott Brooks said. “That’s not my decision, but I feel confident about it.”

It was a weird sequence, with Westbrook being called for a foul and then hopping up to lightly complain to Ed Malloy. After just a few words, with no demonstrative actions or anything, without a warning, Malloy handed Westbrook the tech. Westbrook knew it, too. As Malloy pulled up his hands to call it, Westbrook was going, “no no no no no!” holding his arms out waving. And as Malloy blew the whistle, he just hung his head in shame.

“I ain’t got no view on it,” Westbrook said. “He called it and we’ll move on from it.”

Maybe it’s the merciful end to this season the Thunder need. It’s obvious they aren’t good right now, a team merely capable of beating bad to slightly better than bad teams, all mostly at home. They’ve been run ragged, Westbrook especially, trying to find a way to get enough each night. For a while there, it was all working. They won four straight before getting embarrassed in San Antonio, which included an impressive win over the Hawks.

Since then, it’s seven losses in nine tries, including five of the last six, with the two wins being a 20-point comeback in Phoenix, and an ugly win in OKC against a horrible Kings squad.

They aren’t good enough. At least not presently. Maybe if they squeak in, they’ll find some new life, especially if Serge Ibaka returns. Maybe they’ll push the Warriors some, maybe stealing a game in OKC. Fact is, the Thunder are worn out, mentally and physically exhausting from this ridiculous season, and just don’t have much left.

Westbrook sensed that early tonight, scoring 22 in the first quarter. He played with the kind of will he had in Game 4 in the 2012 Finals, doing everything he could to just play harder than everybody else on the floor. It culminated with a career-high 54 points with nine rebounds and eight assists, but on 43 shot attempts. Forty-three. That’s a lot. (He did make 21 of them, though.)

“You can look at the shots, and he probably took a handful too many,” Brooks said. “A lot of them were attacks and layups and at the very end, we were making comebacks. Twice we made comebacks because of his aggressive play. Russell leaves everything on the floor. He’s not a perfect player, nor is anybody in this league, but he plays with perfect energy every night and that’s what we look at.”

Said Frank Vogel: “We didn’t really mind he was the only guy going. He scored 29 in the first half that we were winning. If he’s going to take 43 shots, he’s going to score a lot of points and nobody else on the court will get into a rhythm.”

There will many a hot take from this Westbrook game. Forty-three shots in a regulation game is crazy. But Westbrook competed with a kind of fire that’s impressive even for him, playing out his tank entirely.

“I don’t really give a damn what nobody thinks, to tell you the truth, man,” Westbrook said. “I really don’t care. Every night I go out and compete harder than anybody else in this league and I’m proud of coming out and my teammates don’t have a problem with it. I’m good with that.”

You can spin Westbrook however you want. He could be the hero, the player so many have begged others to be, a willing, give-no-effs superstar that is not about the let a game get away with at least trying to stop it. Or he’s the distrusting ball-hog that froze out his team and tried to do too much.

It really doesn’t matter. Because he ain’t changing, folks. He’s going to play this way until he can’t anymore.

Which, as it appears, by league mandate, will include Monday.

NOTES:

If you want to gripe, three things about Westbrook’s night are fair game as far as I’m concerned: 1) four missed free throws, 2) Anthony Morrow only got four shots and 3) fifteen 3-pointers. Some were necessary in the comeback attempt, but he had taken nine by the end of the third quarter. He shoots them when he’s tired, and there were a number that were just a preventative measure so he didn’t have to try and go at the rim again.

Dion Waiters had 16 points on 7-16 shooting, which isn’t too bad. But he also missed all four of his free throws and completely quit attacking the rim tonight.

Enes Kanter was kind of a no-show. He had 13 points and only five rebounds in 32 minutes.

Steven Adams more of the same. In 25 minutes, four points and 10 rebounds, and 0-6 from the line (all bad misses, too) and an easy bunny missed.

Outside of Westbrook, I thought the Thunder’s best player was Nick Collison. He was excellent defensively and even though he can’t make anything right now, he was a crucial part to running solid offense.

Mitch McGary grew up nearby Indy, and there were two guys in the arena that were clearly friends of his, standing and cheering at everything he did. Fun to watch.

On Morrow, that’s just not good. He needs more than four shots. Opposing teams have figured the Thunder out some, overloading to Morrow, making it tough for him to get looks. But that’s where Westbrook has to get more inventive.

Pacers fans didn’t get into the game whatsoever until two moments: When Westbrook picked up the technical, and when George Hill made that wild shot. Until those moments, for a game supposedly carrying high importance to them, they were very much not into it.

D.J. Augustin hasn’t been very good lately, has he?

That moment Dion Waiters took a pull-up 3 in transition with no rebounders was when I think we were all officially broken.

The Pacers pregame featured fireworks, streamers and a long, uncomfortable continuous shot on the big screen of Scott Brooks.

In the first quarter Westbrook had 22 and four assists. The only basket he didn’t either create or score was the first of the game, a Dion Waiters’ step-back jumper, naturally.