NBA playoffs: Kevin Durant and Chris Paul take aim at Russell Westbrook's critics after 37-point Game 4
The Los Angeles Clippers are on the brink of elimination. If you ask the team that put them there, it's nowhere close to being Russell Westbrook's fault.
The Clippers fell 112-100 in Game 4 against the Phoenix Suns on Saturday, putting them down 3-1 in a first-round series that has lost a lot of juice due to the injuries of Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.
Westbrook finished the game with 37 points on 17-of-29 shooting with six rebounds and four assists. In four games this series, Westbrook is averaging 26 points, 7.5 rebounds and 7.3 assists per game while shooting 46% percent and 36.4% from 3-point range.
Those are pretty good numbers for a player who only landed with the Clippers after a disastrous Lakers tenure, in which his already considerable personal criticism reached an all-time high. Two players who didn't like that criticism were Suns stars Kevin Durant and Chris Paul, and they saw Game 4 as a repudiation of the long-standing narratives around their opponent and friend.
Kevin Durant and Chris Paul on criticism of Russell Westbrook 💯
KD: "When he's retired, people are gonna really tell the truth about how they feel about his game."
CP: "I feel like the only people to do that are the people who don't know basketball."pic.twitter.com/vYb1mSNAaT— Ball Don’t Lie (@Balldontlie) April 22, 2023
Durant's take on Westbrook, his former teammate with the Oklahoma City Thunder:
"People going to always criticize when you're successful and doing your thing for this long. Somebody always going to find something that they don't like about you. Russ has been resilient his whole life. He comes to work, don't say much. Just come hoop.
"When he's retired, people are going to really tell the truth about how they feel about his game. Right now, the fun thing to do is to make a joke out of Russ. But the way he's been playing since he got with the Clippers is showing everybody who he really is."
And Paul:
"I feel like the only people to do that too are the people who don't know basketball and don't know what it's like to compete. I know for me, Russ is one of my closest friends. People that do that and talk crazy probably wish they could be in that situation."
While it is tempting to say Westbrook has changed since joining the Clippers, it is probably more accurate to say his circumstances have changed.
Why Russell Westbrook is doing better with the Clippers
The Lakers situation created something of a perfect storm for Westbrook's critics.
Few players in the NBA have had their limitations established as much as Westbrook, who is a historically bad 3-point shooter and notoriously inactive when he doesn't have the ball in his hands. He's still very athletic (though not as athletic as he once was), can find an open man and rebounds at an elite level, but that mix was a bad combination with the Lakers.
Westbrook faced a headwind the moment he joined the Lakers because of the collection of role players they gave up for him, and he was left with a roster that lacked in outside shooting and needed him to be something he wasn't. His considerable salary didn't help things either, but you can't really blame him for his team's troubles when that team agreed to take on his contract.
When the Lakers finally found a way to trade him — a move that has worked out well for them too — and the Utah Jazz bought him out, Westbrook got a chance to pick his next team and seemed to choose well.
Where the Lakers lacking in depth behind their stars, the Clippers had it in spades. Where the Lakers lacked in players who provided gravity, the Clippers had a roster full of players who could shoot. That didn't really change when Leonard and George went down, so Games 3 and 4 have represented a chance for Westbrook to do what he does best for the first time in years.
Granted, the Clippers didn't win those games, but anyone who watched can't be chanting "Westbrick" in good faith. He's earned that much, at least, even if the Clippers' season is over in a few days.
