Why Westbrook traveled to Cleveland
CLEVELAND – Russell Westbrook milled around on the sideline after shootaround Wednesday afternoon, dressed in a black hoodie and sweatpants, cracking jokes with his teammates as they came off the floor.
He was still limping but free of any kind of bulky brace two days after suffering a left ankle sprain in the Thunder’s win over the Pelicans Monday. OKC was without its star point guard on the court when it beat Cleveland 95-86 Wednesday night, but the Thunder still wanted Westbrook on the road with the team.
“He’s a leader,” Thunder coach Billy Donovan said. “It gives him an opportunity here to get treatment while he’s on the road. I think he can help those guys from the bench and locker room, talking to them, spending time with them. I’ve always said this about him: People see him play, but they don’t see a lot of the things he does behind closed doors.”
For fellow point guard Dennis Schroder, Westbrook’s influence has come in the form of both jokes and critiques. Among other pieces of advice, Westbrook has encouraged him to be more aggressive, Schroder said. That was one of Schroder’s focuses when he scored 11 points in the fourth quarter Monday.
“Just the month I’ve been here, I got better,” Schrooder said after shootaround Wednesday, “just because he (Westbrook) has so much impact on you when he says something.”
At shootaround, Donovan wouldn’t commit to saying the Thunder were better equipped to handle Westbrook’s absence than they had been in preseason and the first two games of the regular season, which Westbrook missed while recovering from arthroscopic surgery on his right knee. Instead, he chose to let the result of the game answer that question.
Cavaliers played shorthanded
The Thunder not only got a crack at the team with the worst record in the league entering play Wednesday, but they also faced an injury-plagued Cavs’ team. Cleveland was short-handed to begin with, missing Kevin Love (toe) for the seventh straight game.
On top of that, George Hill was a late scratch from the lineup Wednesday due to left shoulder soreness. Hill went off for 22 points in Cleveland’s 102-100 loss to the Magic Monday.
Then in the first quarter, the Cavaliers received another dose of bad luck: Cedi Osman played less than six minutes before leaving the game with lower back spasms.