I come not to bury Russell Westbrook, but to praise him.
After a Game 4 performance that could most charitably be described as "selfish," the Thunder's star point guard is being heavily criticized. Some of the scorn is justified. As a whole, the team looked stiff, lacked confidence, and failed to execute, yet somehow they only lost by three points. On one possession late in the fourth, Westbrook made one of his patented wild drives into the lane that ended in an impossible layup attempt. Upset that the referees did not bail him out with a foul call, he stayed behind to complain while the Nuggets pushed the ball to the other end. His man, unguarded, dribbled to the middle of the floor where the rest of the defense was forced to collapse—you know, since the person assigned to stop him from getting to the basket unmolested was busy arguing with a ref 80 feet away—and he kicked it out to a wide open three point shooter who easily hit the shot.