It's hard to believe that Russell Westbrook is now on his third NBA franchise since departing Oklahoma City in 2019, having gone one-and-done in Houston and Washington. But Westbrook's latest destination, the Los Angeles Lakers, might give the longtime, beloved Thunder player his best shot in years at an NBA title.
Then again, if last Wednesday was any indication, the Lakers have a lot of work to do.
True, LA played the game without "Space Jam" star LeBron James. But between Westbrook, Anthony Davis, Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard, Rajon Rondo and DeAndre Jordan, you would expect the Lakers to have more than enough knowledge, size and experience to sleepwalk through this Thunder roster.
At first, it seemed that would be the case. Oklahoma City went down big in the first, trailing 41-19 after one quarter and giving up 12 points to The Brow, Davis.
In the second quarter, LA earned its largest lead of the game at 26 points. For the Lakers, it was all downhill from there.
"It's a 48-minute game," the Thunder's Twitter account said after the contest, "we used all of 'em."
While factually accurate, that statement implies that it took OKC until the game's final moments to erase that 26-point deficit. It did not. The Thunder punched Los Angeles in the mouth to start the second half, following their 37-point second with a 41-point third, matching LA's first-quarter total.
Oklahoma City actually took the lead at the very end of the third quarter, going up
97-95 on a 3-pointer by — who else? — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who paced OKC with 27 points for the night. It was the only lead change of the ballgame; Oklahoma City held off LA throughout the fourth quarter and sealed the deal late.
And that's where the fun really began: After Darius Bazley stole a last-second inbounds pass and dunked hard to up the Thunder lead, Westbrook took exception to the supposed showboating and had to be restrained by Gilgeous-Alexander and Lu Dort, screaming "Don't do that!" repeatedly in Bazley's direction.
He was T'd up for the second time and ejected from the game, capping an altogether topsy-turvy night for the Thunder and their returning former star.
After the game, Westbrook said he took exception because of his "old school" mentality.
"There's certain things you don't do in sports," he said. "Game already over and I didn't like it. Simple as that." Head Coach Mark
Head Coach Mark Daigneault took responsibility for the dunk after the game. "We haven't covered that, and that's on me," Daigneault said, adding that he has a "young, growing group" that hasn't necessarily seen that situation before.
"In a perfect world, we probably are running that out," Daigneault said, "but I'm taking that one because we haven't covered that. The one thing we are doing is really trying to juice our team up with confidence, to be aggressive and to not back down. He stole the ball and I think he got lost in the moment, but if there's anyone to blame on that one, it's me."
After a lackluster 103-82 loss to Golden State on Saturday night, the Thunder had another great performance against the other LA team, the Clippers, on Monday. They didn't ultimately take the victory, giving up the lead in the final minutes, but Gilgeous-Alexander had another star turn and will give the Thunder plenty of positive momentum as they prepare for a rematch with the Lakers in Los Angeles this Thursday night at 9:30 p.m. CT.
Until next week — Thunder Up!
Thunder Top Lakers for Lone Win