The NBA standings are about to get heated. The rivalry between old buddies, Russel Westbrook and Kevin Durant has just reached another level. This time, it's the silent treatment- cold war that has made the NBA standings a surprise to everyone. It's Russel Westbrook VS Kevin Durant round one.
After Durant left, many expected that the Thunder will wax out of the championship. Yet as of the moment, they are proving everybody wrong, to everybody's surprise - of course, not to Westbrook. On Wednesday, Westbrook's team gave the Los Angeles Clippers their first loss, annihilating them with an 85-83 score, providing unexpected NBA standings. When asked by the media about their 4-0 standing even without Durant, Westbrook quipped "That's where they went wrong." That now leaves only two undefeated teams in this NBA season: The Cleveland Cavaliers and the Durant-less Thunder. Asked if anything has changed since Durant left, Westbrook said "nothing". He is still the same forceful assassin. Thunder guard Victor Oladipo even said that "Once he (Westbrook) gets in his zone, there's nobody stopping him."
He continued to say that Westbrook is very successful because no one has the same mentality as him by doing what he does at high level and being consistent with it every day. Westbrook is the first player in NBA's history to go beyond 100 points, 30 rebounds and 30 assists in the first three games of this season. He has placed his team at a very good position in this season's NBA standings. He is more motivated since Durant, who is reputed to be his "partner-in-crime", left the Thunders to join the Warriors. To add insult to injury, Westbrook was not personally informed by his buddy Durant of his decision to leave his team. Durant reportedly just gave Westbrook a text informing him of the transfer before he announced it to the world.
From that point, it's Russel Westbrook VS Kevin Durant. There were instances of verbal jabs from various interviews. But when Westbrook got enough of it, he made a vow of silence. "I don't know if you guys know, but I'm not answering any more Kevin questions," Westbrook informed a group of interviewers. "If you want to talk about basketball, I'll talk about that, but other than that I won't talk about him." But he wants to talk about his team's NBA standings and their winning streak. "I'm happy that we're winning, man," Westbrook quipped. "I mean, all I care about is winning regardless of what the numbers look like. As long as we win then I'm happy." Olapido added that Westbrook's mentality is brushing off and is becoming contagious to the team.
In this fight for NBA standings, it's probably time for Durant to feel what it's like to stand in the way of a charging Westbrook. Basketball fans all over the world would surely follow this Russel Westbrook VS Kevin Durant dynamics.
