It seems like just yesterday when I was watching Westbrook play, while mentioning to a friend how he'd never missed a game at any level: grade school, college, pro. It was always too good to continue being true, but somehow I imagined him going his entire career like that.

All of that went up in smoke with a torn meniscus. So many things had to go wrong in order for this to happen. For one thing, Patrick Beverley had to be on the court.


Jeremy Lin had hurt himself during warmups and Beverley ended up playing over 40 minutes in the game. Had it not been for Lin's freak injury, Westbrook would likely be preparing for game 3 tonight; instead, he's done for the season.

Patrick Beverley may score under half a dozen points a game and not even average 20 minutes, but he's going to cast as large a shadow as anyone over this postseason. There will always be the question of what might have been with this year's Thunder team.

A return to the Finals is now unlikely: a championship... all but impossible. It's becoming abundantly clear that there is only one significant team out West. Every day the list of teams to challenge the Nazgul grows smaller. This is the greatest blow yet.

Or maybe this is just the year when the Clippers win it all. We'll know soon enough...
12 Comments:
Anonymous Stockton said...
I was reading about unbreakable records, and one of them was AC Green's streak. Never realized Westbrook had already more than 400 games in a row. It's a real shame...

Anonymous Raza said...
What is the one significant team out West? I can't see the Clippers going to the finals.

TNT posted Westbrook doing something similar to Lin before:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wjWrjQpNBsA


Whoever gets to the Finals will probably get crushed by Miami anyway, but as of today I'm gonna put money on the Spurs I guess.

Blogger Glenn said...
Thanks for the link, Raza. That just makes this whole thing even stranger. I was referring to the Spurs as the last meaningful team out West. It's possible somebody else could pull an upset, but Duncan and crew look head and shoulders above the rest. The idea of the Clippers winning it all just struck me as an appropriately bizarre ending to this year of freak incidents. By the time the finals roll around, the league will probably only have 2 Allstars who can stand without crutches, so you never know.

Blogger Wormboy said...
Yeah, Spurs have the best shot if healthy. Not sure the Clips have the mojo, and they certainly don't have the coaching.

Another interesting take on the whole accident:
http://www.slate.com/articles/sports/sports_nut/2013/04/russell_westbrook_patrick_beverley_the_live_ball_timeout_is_the_dumbest.html

Blogger Savio said...
Go Grizzlies!

Anonymous Stockton said...
Spurs are the best in the west (and they are better than OKC), but I think the Nazgul are imune to the Duncan Face.

Blogger Ivan said...
Does anyone else think Durant threw a super cheap shot at Lin's chest just as that timeout was being called?

Blogger Wormboy said...
The best Bawful of the season was Dwight Howard finishing witha pout fest. Turns out that Sad Dwight face is actually spoiled brat face. Not quite as bad as Bynum flattening JJ Barea (who, btw, bounced right back up), but close.

Ah Lakers. How easy it is to hate thee (except for Pau and Nash).

Blogger Wormboy said...
Oh, and:
http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/9223657/jason-collins-first-openly-gay-active-player

A great stride for human rights, etc. Just one thing. From the respect level, couldn't it have been somebody who, y'know, wasn't such a bad ball player throughout his career?

Anonymous bulls fan said...
This shows what's wrong with relying heavy on stats, rather than watching the players play. (including off the ball).

Anyone who watches Bev loves his full-court pressure and nonstop tenacity on the boards. I know you follow the game closely, but the disrespect for a scrappy-freak accident is pretty lame coming from someone who usually shows enough intelligence.

Before I stop this "LEAVE BEV ALONE" tirade, I just wanna say that scape-goating has to be one of the more pathetic human characteristics.

Blogger Glenn said...
I'm not blaming Beverley, simply pointing out that an intricate series of events had to take place for this precise moment to unfold as it did. Space time continuum and what not.

Wormboy, I see what you mean about Collins.

Go Grizzlies, indeed.