It may have only been five games, but the Houston Rockets–Oklahoma City Thunder playoff series may have just sparked one of the NBA’s best emerging rivalries
and it’s not because each team sports an MVP candidate.
This series ran red hot because, right from the outset, it became pretty clear that Thunder superstar Russell Westbrook — one of those aforementioned MVP candidates — and Rockets defensive stopper Patrick Beverley don’t enjoy each other’s company all that much.
Beverley’s Rockets ended up winning the series 4-1 on Tuesday, but in that fifth and deciding game the two got into it with a little trash talk midway through the fourth quarter. After the game, the two shared their verbal exchange.
“I was shocked because he looked up and said, ‘No one can guard me, I got 40 points.’ And I’m like, that’s nice, you took 34 shots to get it,” Beverley told reporters.
“I’m not trying to bash anybody but, I mean, men lie, women lie, but numbers don’t.”
Westbrook responded in kind.
“He was talking about he was first-team all-defence but I didn’t know what the hell he was talking about because I had 42 at the time,” he said. “I didn’t know what he was talking about. Maybe he was dreaming or some s—, I don’t know.
“… I don’t know what he was talking about but I guess he wants to be first-team all-defence or something. Maybe he was dreaming about it. I don’t know.”
Clearly no love lost between the two bombastic, prickly guards.
The feud between the two isn’t anything new. In a playoff game in 2013 between the Thunder and Rockets, then-rookie Beverley attempted to swipe at the ball while Westbrook was dribbling along the sideline. The endeavour was probably too ambitious and the two collided, resulting in Westbrook tearing the meniscus in his right knee and forcing him to undergo two surgeries.
Fair or not, it did seem as if Westbrook blamed Beverley for having to go through that and hasn’t forgotten.
Both ended up having good series. Westbrook, as he did in the regular season, averaged a triple-double putting up 37.4 points, 11.6 rebounds and 10.8 assists per game, but, as Beverley pointed out, he wasn’t very efficient shooting just 38.8 per cent from the field and 26.5 per cent from three-point range.
Beverley averaged 11.6 points, 6.2 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game on 43.1 per cent shooting and 40.9 per cent from deep in the series, all the while playing strong defence and being a general pain in Westbrook’s side.
All season long the talk was Westbrook vs. James Harden. As the last 10 days has shown us, however, it looks like the real fireworks were between Westbrook and Beverley.
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