OKLAHOMA CITY – Russell Westbrook met on the left flute and swims Patrick Beverley. With a violent turn over his head, he moved the ball to the left and exploded with two dribbles at the rim. He blew past Beverley and lighted the ball from the back plate.
When the ball bounced up on him, Westbrook wiped his arms and rocked them back and forth and rocked the talkative baby. It’s a new celebration feature that he has drawn a few times this season and knocked it out earlier in the game after scoring over Avery Bradley. This, with defender Beverley, with some probable emphasis, Westbrook caused an extra little bit, even topped it with a goodnight kiss in the end.
“Yes, you have little children, you have little children, to sleep,” said Westbrook. “
0:24 Russell Westbrook slithers by Patrick Beverley to finish on the rim and celebrate with a rock- a-bye baby exercise.
Westbrook is an experienced rocker with a 17 month old son plus two twin girls on the way to autumn. He put Clippers to bed when Thunder exceeded a 13-point half-time card, which put the tone in the third quarter. The Thunder used hyper-energetic defense and transitional breaks that came out of the locker room on a 20-0 run which became a 39-10 quarter and a 74-43 second halfway heading to 128-110 victory.
“He’s the engine, he’s the leader and he makes us go,” said Paul George. “You see him coming after it and our job is to back him up. That’s all it is. We see him turning that chin and going to another level. Our job is to match it. “
Westbrook constantly attacked Clipper’s downhill and in the color resists midrange pull ups and 3s in favor of units at the rim. He finished 32 points on 13-of-25 shots plus 4 rebounds and 9 assists.
“When I watch small watches when the punters guard their position,” he said, “I’ll punish them. “
After a 0-4 start, Thunder was on Sunday against Suns, a likely lottery team lacking its biggest star in Devin Booker. The game against the quality clip was a simpler test and after a hacking first half that contained a lot of whistles and a thunder-thrown thunder, Thunder took another flat, confusing result.
Tensions between Russell Westbrook and Patrick Beverley, who have a long history, were boiled over in the fourth quarter of Tuesday night, eventually resulting in dual technical mistakes and a flagrant foul 1 at Beverley to dive into Westbrook knees.