The Lakers finally show that they can be functional without LeBron James on the floor. They snatched a massive win from a streaking Nets and the talking point of the game is, the defense Russell Westbrook played on Kevin Durant.
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Yeah, you heard that right. Brodie played defense. And that too against a 6’10 four-time scoring champ who is playing himself like a cheat code on both ends of the floor right now.
While guarding Durant for the most part of the game, starting with a major block from behind in the first quarter, Russ must have revisited the duo’s good old days from their time in Oklahoma City Thunder’s practice facilities or even before that, when they played against each other in college.
Nothing is new about Russell Westbrook playing great against Kevin Durant, not at least for KD
Having won the last four of their five games, The Slim Reaper must have thought it’d be easy to take on the Lakers without LeBron in the line-up. But, his former teammate had other plans for the 2x Finals MVP.
Brodie didn’t just impact the game with his double-double with crucial 12 assists in the absence of their floor general, he played some terrific defense which James probably would have struggled to.
After the game, Durant was asked about his former partner in crime guarding him, and he went back in time to answer that question.
“He’s just going to hack me the whole time,” Durant said in the post-game presser. “We’ve been doing that s— since we was 18, 19. But more than anything, to see the role Russ is playing right now, he’s just affecting the game in so many different ways. Twelve assists tonight, four turnovers, 14 points, he came in and put his imprint on the game so it’s always fun playing against him, regardless of what setting it is. It’s always been like that between us.”
If not for Brodie, KD would have had 40-45 points in the night, and the Nets would have had the game. But the 2017 MVP has been doing it for a long time.
KD and Brodie have a long history together
After playing against each other in College, the duo got into the league a year apart from each other. Kevin and Russell were both drafted by the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2007 and 2008.
Both played in the same team for 9 years, becoming the arguably best 1-2 punch of the league after Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant. Imagine the number of games they would have played against each other in practice in those years.
They even appeared in Finals together but lost to the Big 3 of Miami. But as both became the MVP level players, KD having already won the MVP and four scoring titles wanted to explore his championship chances with a team that defeated them in the Conference Finals of 2016.
After Durant joined the Warriors, the matches between the Thunder became more exciting and the duo went at each other like they were never teammates.
The look they had for each other in every game for a few years made people believe that their friendship was all over. But as NBA players say, it was always just for the game.
