Russell Westbrook And Deron Williams’ Top 10 Head-To-Head Showdowns

Deron Williams‘ season can be described many ways, and as it stands, many of them aren’t flattering: coach-killer and career-worst shooter are two. Of his own self-evaluation, he told reporters Tuesday, “I don’t think I’m playing like [an elite point guard]. I think I can be. But I’ve just got to figure this thing out.” Before Avery Johnson was fired as Brooklyn head coach, Williams laid blame for why he wasn’t playing elite at the feet of the team’s offensive system. Now with that coach gone, the $98-million dollar man must feel the weight of expectations fully focused on him. It’s a good thing, then, that one of the unquestioned good-luck charms of his career returns tonight: Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook.

To say the two elite guards thrive on one another is accurate, and yet still doesn’t convey the showdowns’ quality. Try this, then: In a dozen games against one another, Westbrook has failed to score at least 20 points just twice, while Williams has scored at least 25 points five times. In his career, Williams’ per-game scoring against Oklahoma City/Seattle is tied for his fourth-highest against any team, at 19.2 points per game.

The familiarity in tonight’s game extends beyond the Olympic teammates, with interim Nets coach P.J. Carlesimo once being the head coach in the Thunder’s inaugural season before being fired and replaced by Scott Brooks. Carlesimo saw the earliest stages of Kevin Durant and Westbrook’s careers, but Williams has seen both blossom up close. Williams and Westbrook may be on divergent paths of success at the moment, but if there are a handful of matchups that bring out the best in both, facing each other is near the top. You don’t have to take my word for it — look at their numbers. Here’s the top 10 showdowns of Westbrook and Williams’ careers.

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10. January 21, 2012
Westbrook was money in the Prudential Center, in one of the more muted matchups in this series’ history. His team-high 21 points and six assists came at the expense of Williams, whose 14 points and six assists came on a night of high-volume shooting, just 5-of-18. When Williams switched off Westbrook on a screen, Westbrook hit a jumper in a big man-guard mismatch. The next time Williams fought through a pick, Westbrook lobbed a back-door alley-oop to Durant from the three-point arc.

It wasn’t a good night for D-Will. In this series, it is his worst.


9. January 30, 2009
For all of his scoring against the Thunder, Williams is rarely the winner for it at 4-8 all-time. In his second OKC matchup across from Westbrook, he got a rare win.

Williams finished with 24 points, 12 assists and a nearly absurd 81 percent true-shooting in the 20-point win on Utah’s home court (of course, he had six turnovers, too). A line like that did not help Westbrook, whose defensive rating of 120 beat his offensive rating by five. And yet, because he’s Russell Westbrook, he put up numbers almost in spite of himself. He had 20 points and eight rebounds with four turnovers.


8. March 20, 2009
The second time the faced each other the Jazz won again, and the showdown was another classic, again. The Thunder had not reached even its 2010 darkhorse status by the first day of spring 2009, but the usual buzzing atmosphere in OKC was one reason why this win was so impressive for Utah on the road. The other reasons, of course, were Williams and Westbrook.

“The young fella was trying to come at me in the first quarter a little bit,” Williams said then. “I was just trying to get everybody involved. The first half, I thought we were doing a good job executing.

“There was really no need for me to force things and get eight turnovers. So, I was just trying to play that role.”

D-Will had 24 points — 20 in the second half — and 11 assists and Westbrook finished with 22 points and four dimes. Both shot better than 57 percent true shooting.


7. October 31, 2010
With Westbrook a step behind on his hip, and OKC’s defense focusing right on him, Williams carved up the Thunder in a Halloween romp by 21. In the first half alone he got ahead of Westbrook on drives and slipped passes to a big man who’d cut across the face of a transfixed defender. It’s why he finished with 16 points, 15 dimes and six boards all while having only the fifth-highest usage percentage of his team that night — the kind of game that put Williams in the discussion for best point guards in the NBA.

Westbrook had his own highlights, namely a two-handed dunk right down the paint in the third quarter. He finished with 22 points, five assists and four steals.


6. November 15, 2010
Oklahoma City went into Utah and won, but it was not the fault of Williams. His 31 points and 11 assists are notable, but then realize his true-shooting percentage was 80 percent, and he assisted on 48 percent of his teammates’ baskets when he was on the court. Meanwhile, Westbrook was collecting a stat line of 22 points, six assists and a true-shooting percentage of 70 percent.

Matched up with Thabo Sefolosha, Williams’ crossover jumper here actually wasn’t very indicative of his night; of his 12 field goals, all but three came either inside the paint or behind the three-point line.


5. January 14, 2009
How does the first game in this series already feel like it was so long ago? From the very start this showed it could be a matchup better than almost any other guard showdown in the NBA, when Westbrook’s 22 points, seven dimes and just one turnover led OKC over Utah. Westbrook finished with his team’s second-lowest defensive rating of the game of 95, but Williams countered with a similar line that mirrors how close their stats are in this series overall. He finished with 25 points, six assists and just one turnover, shooting 57 percent true shooting (Westbrook was 62 percent TS).


4. December 4, 2012
There is a confidence that tonight’s game will continue in their trend because the last time they met, less than a month ago, both guards went off. The Thunder won their sixth straight by beating the Nets in Brooklyn with Westbrook scoring 25 points, dishing nine assists, against five turnovers. In Williams’ almost 42 minutes, he scored 33 points — his season high — with seven assists. Given the challenge of Westbrook, Williams scored 10 points in the first quarter, including a three-pointer from 32 feet to take back a one-point lead halfway through. Not to be outdone, Westbrook matched him with 10 points, too, in the first.

3. February 5, 2011
Three weeks before Williams was dealt to New Jersey, his final OKC-Utah battle against Westbrook lived up to previous expectations. Both players had double-doubles; Westbrook got his second straight win in the series thanks to 33 points and 10 assists, while Williams had 14 points and 11 assists, though on just 40 percent shooting.

2. March 14, 2010
Just six weeks before the young Thunder team officially popped up on everyone’s radar with its first-round series loss to the Lakers, Westbrook showed why he was becoming an elite guard. His 30 points and 11 assists was his first double-double of his series against Williams and grabbed OKC a win for its fifth straight. Even by then, poor shot selection and shot volume has been a hallmark of Westbrook’s biggest faults, so his efficient 75 percent shooting was noted.

Williams was no slouch at the other end. His 27 points and 14 assists arrived with 57 percent shooting and just two turnovers. But while the fourth quarter was Westbrook’s playground with 10 points, D-Will didn’t score after 2:53 left in the quarter and didn’t get the game close enough for a final run. Twice in the final 16 minutes, Westbrook’s All-Star handle tore up Williams for key buckets on drives to the hoop.


1. April 6, 2010
The 140-139 final score in overtime should hint at what kind of a game — with 15 ties and 13 lead changes — this was. Officially, the storyline was how Williams’ 42 points, 10 assists, 4-of-7 three-pointers and 61 percent shooting overall dueled with Durant’s 45 points, but don’t look away from OKC’s boxscore just yet. Westbrook poured in 27 points with nine assists and five boards but couldn’t stop Williams from hitting the game-winning shot with 1.1 seconds left, on a 20-foot jumper.

I’d like to think that was the high point in this series but each time Williams and Westbrook play, another highlight-filled matchup is usually just 48 minutes away.

What do you think?

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