PHOENIX — Russell Westbrook sprinted to steal the ball from Kevin Durant, sending Durant flying to the ground on his bottom.
Durant winced in ache for a couple of moments earlier than heading to the free-throw line at Phoenix’s Footprint Heart as 1000’s of Suns followers in orange T-shirts held their breath. Westbrook rapidly walked away from the scene, seemingly unconcerned, and waited for Durant to start taking pictures.
The sequence performed out like two ardent foes battling in an elimination sport — which, technically, it was. Westbrook’s Clippers had been on their final probability to remain alive within the first-round playoff collection. Nevertheless it was additionally a matchup between two males who had spent practically a decade collectively as teammates, making the N.B.A. finals in 2012 with Oklahoma Metropolis as fledgling 23-year-olds tasked with carrying a brand new franchise in a small metropolis.
“You understand Russ is a fierce competitor, so when he sees Okay, it’s at all times about attempting to play tremendous laborious,” mentioned Suns guard Cameron Payne, who performed with Westbrook and Durant on the Thunder.
Payne added: “Perhaps within the common season, he’ll go assist him up, however you by no means know with Russ. Like taking part in with him in OKC, he was large on the way it’s 15 guys on a crew, and I’m with my 15 guys, in order that’s simply that competing stuff I used to be speaking about.”
It was one other puzzling second in a jagged relationship.
Durant’s Suns received the decisive Recreation 5 on Tuesday, 136-130, holding off a late comeback try from the Clippers and advancing to the second spherical. Phoenix will play the top-seeded Denver Nuggets within the Western Convention semifinals starting Saturday. Suns guard Devin Booker led all scorers with 47 factors; Durant added 31, and Westbrook had 14.
Eleven years in the past, Durant and Westbrook led Oklahoma Metropolis previous playoff groups fronted by the longer term Corridor of Famers Dirk Nowitzki, Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan and headed into an N.B.A. finals matchup with LeBron James and the Miami Warmth. The Warmth beat the Thunder simply in 5 video games, with Miami’s expertise and star energy proving an excessive amount of for the upstart Thunder.
As swift because the loss was, it appeared to point that Durant and Westbrook could be again and would win championships collectively; they appeared too gifted to not.
However they didn’t. Durant and Westbrook picked up particular person accolades: Every has received a Most Beneficial Participant Award and plenty of All-N.B.A. honors, however they by no means acquired to a different finals collectively. Durant left for the Warriors in 2016 after the Thunder blew a three-games-to-one lead within the Western Convention finals towards Golden State.
Of their second matchup towards one another after Durant’s departure, Westbrook yelled at his teammates and instructed them to not discuss to Durant. They prevented questions on one another. Even former teammates like James Harden, who performed with them in Oklahoma Metropolis, mentioned they had been “grown males” who needed to “determine it out themselves.”
Since then, every has been on a number of groups. Durant received two championships with the Warriors after which headed to the Nets and now Phoenix. Westbrook has performed on a number of groups that had been alleged to have been title contenders — Rockets, Lakers, Clippers — however none has panned out. As Durant thrived, Westbrook started to be seen as previous his prime, not the participant who may will groups to wins and common triple-doubles, and he has develop into the butt of jokes from followers when he struggles.
However on this playoff collection towards the Suns, Westbrook proved he may nonetheless be a distinction maker. Westbrook signed with the Clippers in February as a free agent after the Lakers had traded him to Utah, the place he was launched to, at greatest, be the third possibility for the Clippers behind the celebs Paul George and Kawhi Leonard. However accidents to George and Leonard made Westbrook the primary scoring possibility towards the Suns, and he usually served because the crew’s greatest rebounder and defender.
He completed the collection averaging 23.6 factors, 7.6 rebounds and seven.4 assists per sport, wanting like a model of his previous self, and he had the game-sealing block on Booker within the Clippers’ Recreation 1 win.
“When he’s retired, persons are going to actually inform the reality about how they really feel about his sport,” Durant mentioned after Recreation 4, when Westbrook had 37 factors. “Proper now, the enjoyable factor to do is to make a joke out of Russ. However the way in which he’s been taking part in since he acquired with the Clippers is displaying all people who he actually is.”
After Recreation 5, Westbrook mirrored on Durant’s feedback, with an introspective reply that sounded as if it may additionally function a pitch to groups to signal him this summer season.
“I simply assume that I’m a participant that makes errors like anyone else,” Westbrook mentioned. “I miss photographs like anyone else. I flip the ball over like anyone else. However I additionally do plenty of issues that lots of people can’t do, and I’ve achieved plenty of issues individuals haven’t achieved on this league.”
For Durant, this collection, and these playoffs, have a unique that means in some basketball followers’ eyes: proving that he can win a title with out Golden State’s Stephen Curry and as a crew’s greatest participant. Durant, nonetheless, has mentioned that he doesn’t really feel that strain as a result of he has “nothing to show.”
The Boston Celtics embarrassed Durant and the Nets final season within the first spherical of the playoffs, sweeping them with out a lot bother. Boston’s star ahead Jayson Tatum outplayed Durant, scoring rather a lot whereas additionally defending Durant.
After which, within the N.B.A. finals, Curry and the Warriors beat that Boston crew that had simply conquered Durant’s earlier within the postseason.
In Tuesday’s win, Durant disappeared for a lot of the fourth quarter, going scoreless for practically 10 minutes as Booker dominated the ball and the Clippers inched nearer. Because the postseason continues, how the Suns win — with Durant main the way in which or with Booker, or another person — will add fodder to the dialogue about Durant’s place as probably the greatest gamers ever.
That was clear on Tuesday, as Suns Coach Monty Williams made certain to acknowledge in his postgame information convention. However Williams additionally mentioned that he was at fault for Durant’s lack of touches on the finish of the sport.
“I’ve acquired to determine methods to get him in area so he can catch the ball freely and be capable to go,” Williams mentioned.
As the sport ended, Westbrook had many lengthy embraces with Suns gamers and coaches on the courtroom, however he by no means made it to Durant. As a substitute, Westbrook left the ground alone, with one hand raised to followers as he exited, whereas Durant did a tv interview on the opposite finish of the courtroom.
