Huddled in his locker after the game, the Thunder’s 19th of the season, Russell Westbrook looked sick to his stomach. It was a November loss on the third game in four nights to a high-quality Denver Nuggets team. Many 11-year NBA veterans might have shrugged it off and gone to grab a late bite on a Saturday night. What’s one loss in an 82-game season?
Not Westbrook. If it wasn’t obvious after more than a decade of playing with the same tenacity every night, he cares. Deeply. This is his team and he helped set Oklahoma City’s standards for performance, and in the first half on Saturday night the Thunder didn’t play up to those bars.