In the Washington Wizards locker room, coach Scott Brooks stood at the front of the room, recognizing the players for their impact on the big win in Portland.
He started with Isaac Bonga, who played just five minutes, but made another 5 on the scoreboard.
“Those five minutes were huge,” said Brooks. He moved to Rui Hachimura, calling him a “difference maker” in the last two weeks, due to his defensive versatility.
He brought it to a huddle, and there was a standard cheerful commotion, but then a brief pause. There was an understanding that someone else had the floor, as he does after each game, whenever he wants.
“Hey, stay tuned to what we’re doing,” said Russell Westbrook. “Don’t get tired of doing the same s —. Don’t get tired of it, don’t get tired, don’t get tired of doing the same s —. That’s what we do.”
The broke the huddle with “family” in three, and with that, the Wizards left the Moda Center with a fourth consecutive victory, beating the Portland Trail Blazers 118-111, showing signs of straightening their faltering start to the season.
Westbrook played perhaps his best game of the season, scoring an efficient 27 points, adding 11 rebounds and 13 assists for his eighth triple-double of the season. Which puts him in second place in triple-double in the history of the Wizards franchise – already – passing John Wall and Wes Unseld, and just behind Darrell Walker (15). Bradley Beal scored 37 points, Hachimura added 17, Davis Bertans hit a few 3s and the Wizards looked like a good team.
It’s been a busy season for the Wizards, with the league’s health and safety protocols interrupting them for weeks as the team handled a COVID-19 outbreak and contact tracking. There were injuries, large and small. There were excruciating losses. There were significant constraints.
“We keep saying that we need games, we need games,” said Brooks. “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 transform the young Wizards and elevate them into a robust Eastern Conference playoff team. And Brooks maintained for weeks, despite frustrating casualties, that the Wizards were about to break.
What was not said, however, was that the Wizards needed Westbrook to rediscover their elite level to do so. A quadruple injury left him on the sidelines for weeks in early January, and the games lost and training the team was dealing with kept his game rusty. Westbrook is a well-known rhythm player, who needs games to solve his problems. The more he plays, the clearer things get. Your fist is tighter. Your sweater is softer. Your decision making is better. Its finish is stronger.
“He’s getting into a rhythm. He’s going to have more games like this,” said Brooks. “The guy is a champion player. How he prepares. How he talks to our people. He forces the team to be ready.”
But at 32, Westbrook had to take a different approach to his recovery. It was a slow process, something that required an adjustment.
“To start the year, I was debating, and it was a difficult point for me, honestly, because I don’t like to disappoint my teammates. I want to make sure that I’m available to them, even if I’m not 100 percent,” he said. . “And that is something I have always done. It is probably not the best thing to do, but honestly, as I got older, I had to stop. I had to stop because I was unable to explode and move the way I needed to.”
There were times when questions were asked about him, those that had long been expected. There were alarming signs of washing. He looked like a slower pace and the electricity wasn’t turning on. The ferocity was not the same. But, said Westbrook, that was just because he was trying to play a longer game for the first time.
“Now I am feeling much better,” he continued. “I am able to move and explode and pass people and make an impact on the game on both sides of the court and, as the season progresses, I will continue to improve. I am not worried about it at all.”
Westbrook has spent 12 seasons playing exceptionally hard, and doing so with the kind of consistency night after night that few players are prepared to handle. There are many kilometers with him and knee procedures to accompany him. His style is to disregard personal safety within the limits of 48 minutes, never missing a moment worrying about the future, instead focusing 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 against.
After the Wizards defeated the Nets a few weeks ago on their wild return in the last five seconds, Brooks went straight to the different process Westbrook went through this season. Westbrook’s instantaneous ability on the trampoline has always been something that Brooks – and his successor, Billy Donovan – marveled at, how the shipowner could apparently roll out of bed, increase the energy to 10 and take off. It was the same way he approached injury recovery, playing through almost any small ding and taking on the bigger things with a ferocity that made him come back early from knee surgery, playing with a dent in his face and dealing with ligament tears. in your hand.
“He didn’t do it this time,” said Brooks a few weeks ago, after the Wizards shocked the Nets in Westbrook’s savage 3. “What I’m happy about, because he’s an old man now.”
What Westbrook wanted in an exchange outside of Houston was to get back to his way now-I-do-whatever-I want, leading a team on and off the track. He wanted to bring his immense gravitational pull to a new dressing room and for a team to assume its intense identity. He wanted to play his own way and not worry about analytical equations. In desperate need of a cultural update, the Wizards wanted it too.
“He set the tone. Our guys are much better prepared to prepare to win a game,” said Brooks. “He guided us in so many ways that I don’t even want to get in. Our players know that. Ask any player on this team. They know he means it. This is not a hobby for him. Often in this league, people look at it as a hobby. It’s fun, we can do something we love. I understand. But it’s still your job, your livelihood, how you represent your organization, your city, your family, your coaches. And Russell does it at the highest level he has ever saw.
“He gave us a way to reach a championship level [team]”Brooks added.” Our young people need this. Sometimes they don’t understand how hard he is on them, but they will realize in the coming years that this is how you start your career the right way, by being around good players. “
Beal is ready to start the Game of the Stars and gives Westbrook credit for helping to push him to be better. Westbrook has a long history of playing alongside top talent and elevating them. He helped Kevin Durant win four scoring titles and an MVP. Paul George played the best season of his career with Westbrook. And alongside Beal, Westbrook recognizes his place as a complementary star, stepping aside to let his companion cook, but also conveying his will when necessary.
“My job is to make sure I continue to put pressure on him and get the best out of him every night,” said Westbrook of Beal.
Westbrook was never a model of consistency. His recklessness is part of his ability as a basketball renegade, willing to take the burden of failure. But what he needs is for his engine to run at the highest gear, even if the oil needs to be changed a little more often.
“I don’t see the ups and downs you’re saying. I see your kick going up and down,” said Brooks, “but your game is not based on getting it right and wrong. It is based on leading us.”