BOSTON — So how do you game plan against Oklahoma City guard Russell Westbrook, the reigning NBA MVP?
"The thing that I would say is he is very skilled clearly, extremely competitive and the best athlete I’ve ever seen," coach Brad Stevens said before his Celtics hosted the Thunder on Tuesday night at the Garden. "So you cross your fingers, you talk to people and you know you’re not going to get any answers from them either and you pray a little [...]
BOSTON — So how do you game plan against Oklahoma City guard Russell Westbrook, the reigning NBA MVP?
“The thing that I would say is he is very skilled clearly, extremely competitive and the best athlete I’ve ever seen,” coach Brad Stevens said before his Celtics hosted the Thunder on Tuesday night at the Garden. “So you cross your fingers, you talk to people and you know you’re not going to get any answers from them either and you pray a little bit and yeah, throw as many bodies as you can. He’s hard to guard and the thing I’ve always appreciated about Russell is, all that being said, it’s his competitiveness that I think makes him an MVP level player.”
Last season, Westbrook led the NBA in scoring, joined the legendary Oscar Robertson to become only the second NBA player to average a triple-double for a season. He was voted the league’s MVP.
But in the playoffs, his former teammate James Harden and Houston stole Westbrook’s thunder by knocking out his Oklahoma City team in the opening round in five games. The title went to Golden State, which was bolstered by the addition of Kevin Durant, another former Westbrook teammate.
The 6-foot-3, 200-pound Westbrook powers his way to the basket better than anyone his size, but he clearly needed help so OKC acquired Paul George and Carmelo Anthony for this season. In October, Paul Pierce picked the Thunder to win the NBA championship, but OKC got off to a slow start, entering December with a record of only 8-12. Westbrook had to learn to play with his new teammates.
“It’s been hard for him,” Thunder coach Billy Donovan said. “It really has been in a lot of ways and I think he’s handling it incredibly well.”
OKC won eight in a row in January, but then dropped four straight. Lately, however, the Thunder have made Pierce’s prediction seem not as crazy. OKC entered Tuesday riding a six-game winning streak that vaulted the Thunder into fourth place in the Western Conference with a 43-29 record.
“They look like one of the best teams in the NBA right now,” Stevens said, “the way that they’re playing.”
On Saturday night, the Thunder snapped Toronto’s 11-game winning streak with a 132-125 victory and handed the Raptors only their sixth home loss against 29 wins. Westbrook led the way with 37 points, 13 rebounds and 14 assists for his fifth consecutive triple-double and his league-high 23rd this season. The NBA rewarded Westbrook by naming him the Western Conference Player of the Week.
So is Westbrook the best athlete that Donovan has ever seen?
“He’s up there,” Donovan said. “I think it’s not only the athleticism part of it, but it’s the competitiveness and the force he plays with.”
Changing focus
Donovan coached Celtics forward Al Horford at Florida and they won the 2006 and 2007 NCAA championships together. So he disagrees with those Celtics fans who criticize Horford for not scoring more points.
“He played for me and there’s no doubt in my mind that he could have averaged 25 points and 15 rebounds easy,” Donovan said. “We would have never won a national championship. That’s the thing with him. He can go out there and score more points, but he also understands it may not be best for their team. The thing I’ve always respected about him is it’s always about winning and he’ll do whatever he has to do (for) winning and whatever he has to sacrifice (for) winning.”
In his final year at Florida, Horford averaged 13.2 points, 9.5 rebounds and 2.2 assists as the Gators repeated as national champs. This year with the Celtics, he’s averaging 12.8 points, 7.5 rebounds and 4.8 assists.
“The most underrated skillthat I felt like no one ever talks enough about him is he’s unbelievable passer for a big man,” Donovan said. "I let him start the break all the time in college, him and (Joakim) Noah.”
The biggest difference is that he’s shooting 42.4 percent from 3-point distance. In his three years in college, he never attempted a trey.
“He’s a great, great player,” Donovan said, “because he has all the intangible things. There may be guys that jump higher, there may be guys that have better post moves, there may be guys that shoot the ball better, but as it relates to winning, he impacts winning at the highest of levels in my opinion.”