The Los Angeles Clippers are fighting for playoff seeding in the Western Conference. Entering Thursday night’s game against the Denver Nuggets, Los Angeles found itself in fourth place, but there’s only a 2.5-game cushion on the Play-In Tournament. And with Kawhi Leonard out for the game against the defending champions, the Clippers desperately needed someone to step up.
These are usually the sorts of games where Tyronn Lue leans on Russell Westbrook to bring a little bit of energy and, if all goes right, provide the kind of spark an underdog needs to pull an upset. The problem is that while Westbrook can bring this, the line between energy and chaos is very thin, and if he can’t toe it perfectly, you’ll sometimes get moments like this miss from the first quarter. Westbrook attempted to drive on Christian Braun and shoot from the block while falling away, and somehow, he put the shot over the top of the backboard.
The official box score has this marked down as a miss from a foot away, which happens all the time. What does not happen all the time, however, is missing a shot from a foot away because you toss it over the whole dang backboard — it’s probably worth mentioning here that Westbrook is playing with a wrap on his left hand as he works his way back from a fracture. Still, you will, assuredly, see this on Shaqtin’ A Fool sooner rather than later.