Video: Brendan Haywood helps Russell Westbrook get off the schneid

December 30, 2011   ·   0 Comments

Video: Brendan Haywood helps Russell Westbrook get off the schneid

It had been a rough 24 hours for Russell Westbrook. The Oklahoma City Thunder‘s star point guard turned in arguably the worst game of his career in a 98-95 win over the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday night, missing all 13 of his field goal attempts and scoring just four points in more than 31 minutes of action.

The bold-faced headline, though, was the heat-of-the-moment clash between Westbrook and Kevin Durant on the Thunder bench after Westbrook barked at Thabo Sefolosha for passing up an open 3-pointer. While any sound and fury present in that moment almost surely signified nothing, it stirred memories of rumored tensions brewing during last year’s playoffs, which made for crummy mainstream media “debate” and a bad day for OKC.

On top of that, Westbrook started Thursday night looking kind of ragged, hitting just two of his first eight shots and canceling out his four assists with four turnovers. He looked like he could use a pick-me-up.

Luckily, about four-and-a-half minutes into the third quarter, Mavericks center Brendan Haywood was there to lend a hand.