MVP production
Russell Westbrook keeps piling up the numbers while overcoming obstacles.
Durant-Westbrook II and Zaza Pachulia and revenge talk and staredowns stole much of the show last week when the Warriors bashed the Thunder.
Lost in all the extracurriculars was a recurring theme that played out on the Oracle Arena court and was consistently identified by ESPN’s crack broadcast trio.
How easy things came for Kevin Durant and how hard things came for Russell Westbrook.
Such is life in their new environs. Durant is on a sailboat ride with the mighty Warriors, who went 73-9 without him last season and weren’t likely to find choppy waters with him. Open shots galore and less defensive strategy against him, since Steph Curry and Klay Thompson still wear Golden State gear.
Meanwhile, Westbrook’s mighty numbers come with a huff and a puff. League-leading scoring despite defenses designed mostly to stop only him. Double-digit assists despite no Durant to target. Some of Westbrook’s passes against the Warriors were whiparound darts that found Thunder hands under the basket when no opening was apparent.
Westbrook’s dubious quadruple-double — 10 turnovers to go with his normal mother lode of points, rebounds and assists — were forgiven considering the enormity of Westbrook’s task.
Such is the Thunder’s current state. Maybe next season, the path gets easier for Westbrook. But this Thunder
team creates quite the obstacle course.
Still, these circumstances carry a silver lining for Westbrook. The difficulty of this assignment, coupled with Westbrook’s historic production, enhances his MVP case.
Heck, the Warriors’ own Steve Kerr said Durant is “not going to win the MVP because there are a lot of people out there who are playing extremely well.”
By a lot of people, Kerr mostly means Westbrook and James Harden.
LeBron James is annually the league’s Most Valuable Player but has won only four of the awards, because voters prefer a socialistic approach.
Steph Curry has won two straight MVPs and is playing equally outstanding this season, but being on the same team as Durant shows the difference in their games. One is a historically great shooter. The other a historically great player.
As for Durant’s candidacy, he has joined a team that makes things easy for him as much as he’s made things easy for it.
So exactly where’s the great value?
Nope, this is a twoman race, and truthfully, if Harden wins it, no one can beef. Harden is playing not just spectacularly, but historically, too, leading the league in assists (11.6, 1.2 more per game than Westbrook, who is second) while averaging 28.7 points (third in the NBA).
But Westbrook’s triple-double chase has captured the nation’s fancy.
Trying to repeat Oscar Robertson’s 55-year-old achievement, all in the wake of Durant’s departure, has turned the previous anti-hero into a sympathetic figure.
And the All-Star voting results of last week will help Westbrook, too.
Harden and Curry were named the Western Conference’s starting guards, but only because of a heavy fan vote for Curry.
The players voted Westbrook No. 1 among West guards — Westbrook got 167 votes to Harden’s 149. Both more than doubled Curry.
Even more germane to the MVP race, the players also preferred Westbrook — he received 93 votes, to Harden’s 91.
Those results seem to reflect what Mike Breen and Co. kept talking about Wednesday night.
Nothing comes easy for Westbrook, yet he’s producing and the Thunder is winning at a decent rate (25-19, sixth in the West).
The players and media respect Westbrook, maybe even are awed by Westbrook, and the fan snub could work in Westbrook’s favor, if it creates even more empathy for the spurned superstar, whose degree of difficulty is working in his favor as it relates to the MVP vote.
Enes Kanter can remember the moment he got over it.
Playing a home game last season against the Utah Jazz — the team that traded him to the Thunder in 2015 — Kanter remembers a subpar first half, a walk to the locker room and a word of advice from teammate Steven Adams.
“Just one word: ‘Breathe.’ So I was like,” and here Kanter paused for a deep breath, “‘I’m good man. Let me just go out there and play my game.’”
And that, from Kanter’s perspective, was the end of his Jazz hang-up.
He’ll play his former team again on Monday in Salt Lake City, and if the Thunder’s visit there last month is any indication, he’ll be heartily booed when the ball touches his hand, taunted by the fans in the stands at Vivint Smart Home Arena.
But Kanter insists it won’t bother him. Not anymore.
The first couple of trips to Utah — one in March of 2015, the month after the trade, and one in December of the following season — were a challenge.
Kanter had fanned the flames by comparing the Jazz unfavorably to the Thunder, saying that he had “never liked playing basketball” in Utah and that the move to Oklahoma City was the first time he’d played “for my team, for the fans, for my teammates, for coaches, everybody.”
Those comments didn’t go over well in Utah.
“I remember the year I got traded after I went there, I was kinda feeling a little nervous because it was kinda weird for me,” Kanter said. “It was the first time it ever happened for me. Every time I touched the ball I was getting booed. It was definitely a little weird, but I’m used to it now because of my teammates talking to me.”
The Thunder has taken a personal stake in making Kanter comfortable, and it extends well beyond Adams’ calming catchword.
“We all take it personal, to be honest,” guard Cameron Payne said. “We feel like they’re booing us, individually. So we all take it personal and we try to get the win for E.”
Thunder players don’t tease Kanter about Salt Lake’s salty reception. But Payne called it “funny” to think of any crowd of people hating Kanter, who in his time in Oklahoma City has proved a gregarious teammate and hilarious tweeter.
“E is funny,” Payne said. “He says a lot of stuff, but all in all, everyone knows he’s a cool dude. He’s definitely funny. He doesn’t really say stuff to be mean.”
And lately, Kanter has gone out of his way to be nice about the Jazz.
Asked about returning to Utah these days, he often brings up the scenery, as he did this week, when he said: “It’s probably cold out there now. Probably snowing in the mountains, beautiful view.”
Last month, he said, he chatted with former teammates, including Gordon Hayward, Derrick Favors and Rudy Gobert.
“I played with them for a long time,” said Kanter, who played 265 games over three-plus seasons in Utah. “They definitely helped me grow a lot, the organization, players coaches. That’s why I respect them a lot.”
As he returns this week, Kanter is playing the best basketball of his career.
The 6-foot-11 center has scored in double digits in 15 of the past 16 games, averaging 18.2 points, 8.5 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 26.6 minutes over that span.
He’s averaged 13.5 points and six rebounds in four games at Utah since the trade.
The Thunder is 2-2 in those games, the losses coming in Kanter’s highest-scoring road performances against the Jazz, including a 19-point game OKC’s 109-89 loss there in December.
It’s “always difficult” to play against your former team, Thunder coach Billy Donovan said, but in the games he’s coached Kanter against the Jazz, “I don’t think it’s necessarily affected him playing-wise.”
It’s gotten easier, Kanter said. Meanwhile, his teammates have offered encouragement and advice. Among the simplest has come from Russell Westbrook, who’s never been traded but is no stranger to hostile crowds on the road.
“(Westbrook) was telling E, ‘You just got to embrace it,’” Payne said. “Russell always tells him, ‘Go kill ‘em.’ Every time, ‘Go kill ‘em.’”