NBA: Where Meniscus Tears Happen

 

“Now, I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t make some concessions here. The Thunder are extremely top heavy. Extremely top heavy. While they don’t miss Harden while Westbrook and Kevin Durant play 80+ games (Neither has missed a start all season), they absolutely will miss him if either player gets hurt.” – 4/15/13

 

So Russell Westbrook is out with a meniscus tear. For the first time in the Oklahoma City Thunder’s existence, the Russell Westbrook will not play. December 3, 2008 was Russell Westbrook’s first start, and no one has started at point guard other than him since. Westbrook has improved immensely this season. His assists and rebounds have gone up. His turnovers have gone slightly down. His position as the floor general on the team is finally unopposed. Westbrook has been described often as an ironman and he’s played at a high level for every game for the last 4 years. His energy is unmatched on the team. Where Durant is calm cool and collected, generally speaking, Westbrook is the spark plug of the Thunder. His injury wont affect his consecutive games streak (like most records, only the regular season counts), but it’s going to be bizarre not to see him starting at point guard.

I usually try to give a broad perspective when talking about sports, but Zach Lowe discussed the impact that this injury has on the league in a much better way (Also, Lowe is an amazing writer).

“My personal fear about the NBA this season, and about these NBA playoffs, was that they constituted an overlong non-drama with a predictable ending. The Heat are 35-1 in the last 36 games in which LeBron James has played. That is very nearly half an NBA season, with one loss. To review: NBA rules dictate that one team must defeat another team four times in seven games in order to eliminate said team and advance to the next round. Four losses, seven games. Miami is 35-1 in the last 36 games featuring the world’s best player. The math … it is not good.

A healthy Thunder team represented the best chance at a competitive series against a fully healthy Heat team”

If Westbrook is out, then the Thunder cannot beat the Heat. If Westbrook is out, the Thunder stop being the clear favorite in the West. The Nuggets and Spurs suddenly have a better chance. The Clippers or Grizzlies suddenly have a better chance of getting to the Western Conference. The Heat having a straightforward path to their ring is terrible, especially because it’s a waste of the huge improvement of the team. 

Russell Westbrook is the second best player on the team, but he’s a top 10 player in the league, and a huge gap for the Thunder team to fill. For the Thunder, Reggie Jackson might have the opportunity to really prove a lot of people wrong. I’ve described Jackson as “the terrible player that everyone thinks Westbrook is” but over the course of the season my heart has softened, and I’ve really enjoyed watching him play in spurts. (Of course, the other option is Derek Fisher and no one wants that.) Kevin Martin and Serge Ibaka just became a lot more important to the Thunder’s success.

I’m rooting for Kevin Durant to have an all time performance in this playoff run. I want him to put up a 55 point plus game in this series against the Rockets. The scoring load has just been dropped on Kevin Durant in a way that Westbrook’s presence has prevented. I think that he’s capable of really dropping a ton of points and I’m predicting that Game 4 is going to be a huge KD performance. It might have to be. Just as a weakened Thunder is a waste of the Heat’s improvement, if the Thunder lose out because Westbrook misses the playoffs, then that’s a huge waste of Kevin Durant’s huge improvements this year. KD has improved in every area of his game and to have the effort to go unrewarded would be depressing.

It’s currently unknown how long Westbrook will be out for. Ron Artest came back within 2 weeks from his tear. Other players have taken many months to come back. I was crushed when I first read about the injury, and I’m still down about it. One of my classmates hugged when when I walked into school, knowing that I was crushed about the situation. I’m also surprised how many people that complained about Westbrook all year are now certain that the Thunder are done without him. On one final note, Westbrook might still be back before Derrick Rose.