The Russell Westbrook expertise has been a curler coaster journey for a lot of fanbases lately, and this season it’s the Denver Nuggets’ flip to journey. Westbrook has had his dramatic ups and downs all season for a Nuggets staff that has been full of chaos. Sport 1 of their first spherical playoff collection in opposition to the Los Angeles Clippers was no completely different.
Westbrook was everywhere over the primary three quarters, supplementing strong defensive performs and nice passes on offense with reckless, careless giveaways that triggered Clippers quick breaks. The fourth quarter, nonetheless, was a unique beast.
Westbrook, getting the nod to shut the sport because the fifth man within the Denver lineup over Michael Porter Jr., hit the whole lot on the previous MVP’s bingo card. He made a handful of phenomenal hustle performs and grabbed just a few large offensive rebounds. Then, in two of the most important moments of the sport, Westbrook knocked down a go-ahead 3-pointer close to the top of regulation and compelled a large turnover on the finish of extra time.
The Clippers, predictably, didn’t pay a lot consideration to Westbrook when the Nuggets had the ball. Tyronn Lue and firm have been glad to permit Westbrook to shoot, however the future Corridor-of-Famer did not thoughts the blatant disrespect after the sport, through ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne.
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“We will speak about that extra after we care for enterprise,” Westbrook stated shortly after admitting that he did discover the way in which he was being defended.
In fact, that is nothing new to Westbrook and he’ll possible proceed to see related coverages all through the remainder of the playoffs. In spite of everything, the technique allowed Los Angeles to remove Jamal Murray on the finish of the sport and ship additional our bodies at Nikola Jokic.
Westbrook could not find yourself closing each recreation for the Nuggets if Porter has higher video games transferring ahead. Porter was a whole non-factor in Sport 1 after flattening an early 3-pointer and was finally benched within the fourth quarter.
No matter how the Clippers are defending Westbrook, the Nuggets want extra of the identical from him over the course of the remainder of the collection in the event that they wish to come out on prime.
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