In the Washington Wizards locker room, coach Scott Brooks sat in front of the room, acknowledging to the players their impact on a big win in Portland.
It started with Isaac Bonga, who played only five minutes, but was a plus-5 in the score.
“Those five minutes were huge,” Brooks said. He moved to Rui Hachimura, calling him a “difference factor” in the last two weeks, with his defensive versatility.
He brought her for a crowd and there was some standard cheerful agitation, but then a short pause. It was understood that someone else had the floor, as he does after every game when he wants.
“Hey, stay tuned for what we’re doing,” Russell Westbrook said. “Don’t get tired of doing the same s —. Don’t get tired of it, don’t get bored, don’t get tired of doing the same s —. That’s what we do.”
It broke with the “family” of three, and with that, the Wizards came out of the Fashion Center with a fourth straight victory, defeating the Portland Trail Blazers 118-111, showing signs of straightening their start to the season.
Westbrook played perhaps his best game of the season, scoring 27 effective points, adding 11 rebounds and 13 assists for the eighth triple-double of the season. Which places him second in all time in the triple-double in the history of the Wizards franchise – already – past John Wall and Wes Unseld and just behind Darrell Walker (15). Bradley Beal scored 37 points, Hachimura added 17, Davis Bertans hit a few 3, and the Wizards looked like a good team.
It was a hectic season for wizards, health and safety league protocols interrupted them for weeks when the team dealt with a COVID-19 outbreak and tracking contacts. There were wounds, big and small. There were excruciating losses. There were significant shames.
“I’ve been saying we need games, we need games,” Brooks said. “Well, February gave us games. That’s what we need.”
After swapping John Wall for Westbrook before the season, there was optimism that the former MVP’s leadership and intensity could turn the young wizards and lift them into a solid Eastern Conference playoff team. And Brooks maintained for weeks, despite the frustrating lows, that the wizards were about to enter.
However, what was not said was that the wizards needed Westbrook to rediscover their elite level in order to do so. An injury to four eliminated him for weeks at the beginning of January, and the lost games and practices that the team was facing kept the rust of the game. Westbrook is a well-known rhythm player who needs games to solve problems. The more they play, the clearer things become. His handle is tighter. His jumper is softer. His decisions are better. Its completion is stronger.
“He’s getting into a rhythm. He’s going to have more games like that,” Brooks said. “The guy is a league player. How he prepares. How he talks to our boys. He forces the team to be prepared.”
But at 32, Westbrook had to take a different approach to his recovery. It was a slow process, something that needed adjustment.
“To start the year, I was debating and it was a difficult place for me honestly, because I don’t like to let my colleagues down. I want to make sure I’m available to them, even if I’m not 100 percent, “he said.” And that’s just something I’ve always done. It’s probably not the best thing to do, but honestly, as I got older, I had to stop. I had to stop because I couldn’t explode and move properly. “
There were times when questions were asked about him that were long anticipated. There were alarming signs of washing. It looked slower and the electricity did not turn on. The ferocity was not the same. But, Westbrook said, this was only because he was trying to play a longer game once.
“I feel much better now,” he continued. “I’m able to move, explode and get closer to people and influence the game on both sides of the floor, and as the season goes on, I’ll keep getting better. I don’t worry a bit.”
Westbrook has spent 12 seasons playing extremely hard and doing so with a kind of consistency from night to night that several players are equipped to do. There are a lot of miles on it and knee procedures to go with it. His style is not to consider personal safety within the 48 minutes, without ever spending a moment worrying about the future, focusing instead only on the here and now. His approach is what made him an NBA legend. But it is also what he will spend the twilight of his career fighting.
After the Wizards defeated the Nets a few weeks ago in the wild comeback in the last five seconds, Brooks was blown away by the various lawsuits Westbrook has gone through this season. Westbrook’s instant trampoline ability has always been something that Brooks – and his successor, Billy Donovan – marveled at as the guard could roll out of bed, throw energy at 10 and explode for falls. It was the same way he approached injury recovery, playing through almost any small ding and taking on bigger things with a ferocity that made him return early from knee surgery, play with a piece in front of him and occupy the ligament tears in his hand. .
“He didn’t do that this time,” Brooks said a few weeks ago after the wizards shocked the Nets on Westbrook’s wild 3. “What I’m glad about, because he’s an old man now.”
What Westbrook wanted in a Houston transaction was to get back to his current ways, do what I want, lead a team on and off the floor. He wanted to bring his huge gravitational attraction to a new locker room and for a team to assume its intense identity. He wanted to play and not worry about analytical equations. In desperate need of a culture refreshment, the wizards wanted it.
“He set the tone. Our boys are much better prepared to prepare to win a game,” Brooks said. “He’s led us in so many ways that I don’t even want to get in. Our players know that. Ask any player on this team. I know it means business. It’s not a hobby for him. Many times in this league, people “It’s a hobby. It’s fun, we get to do something we like. I understand that. But it’s still your job, your livelihood, the way you represent your organization, your city, your family, your coaches. And Russell does that.” the highest level I’ve ever seen.
“He gave us a way to be a championship level [team]”Brooks added.” Our young people need that. Sometimes I don’t understand how hard it is for them, but in the next few years they will realize that this is how you start your career in the right way, being around good players “.
Beal is ready to start the All-Star game and gives Westbrook credit for helping him push him to be better. Westbrook has a long history of playing alongside high level talents and raising them. He helped Kevin Durant win four major titles and an MVP. Paul George played the best season of his career with Westbrook. And along with Beal, Westbrook recognizes his place as a complementary star, stepping aside to let his teammate cook, but also conveying his will when necessary.
“My job is to make sure I keep pushing him and bringing out the best in him every night,” Westbrook said of Beal.
Westbrook has never been a model of consistency. His recklessness is part of his ability to renounce basketball willing to take on the task of failure. But what he needs is for his engine to run at top speed, even if the oil needs to be changed a little more often.
“I don’t see the ups and downs you say. I see his shot going up and down,” Brooks said, “but his game isn’t based on making and missing shots. It’s based on our leadership.”