Westbrook, Thunder continue to fight for playoff spot despite uncertainty
Save the excuses and the what-ifs for another time. Save them for another season.
No time left to hear them now. We're almost out of regular-season basketball.
Who cares, anyway? None of them matter anymore. It's not November or pre-All Star break. There's only about a month left and the only thing there's time to do is watch the standings, not the injury report.
Kevin Durant may or may not come back. Hard to say at this point, as his timetable for return has dragged from days into weeks. We're approaching a month now since Durant last played, due to a second surgery to repair a fracture in his right foot.
Same goes for Serge Ibaka. His return to the lineup this regular season is questionable, at best after undergoing a surgery this week to alleviate soreness in his right knee. Three-to-six weeks is when he will be checked again.
And here we are, only 14 games to go in the regular season, with no answers to so many questions, including the most important one of whether the Thunder will make the postseason.
Who knows what will happen next or what player will contribute for the Thunder. It doesn't matter. The Thunder have to just figure out how to win games, regardless of lineup, health or reason.
Let's get weird. Play Mitch McGary. Get Steve Novak minutes. Kyle Singler has gone for starter to not playing at all.
Which brings us to Wednesday where there was another standing ovation for Russell Westbrook and another pair of injuries to a Thunder starter. Westbrook was injured, too, getting a nice, little shiner after getting popped in the face inadvertently.
This is life as we know it nowadays. No reason to be surprised. You're not taken aback by Westbrook's postgame wardrobe anymore, are you? Well, there's no occasion to be dramatic about any more injuries, either. The world spins and the playoffs loom.
That's because there's no more time to spend thinking about anything other than the fact the Thunder beat the Celtics 122-118 and moved a half-game in front of New Orleans for the last playoff spot in the Western Conference. Do it, and you'll go crazy. There's too much to consume and far too much to fathom. This team's issues start with injuries and include everything from chemistry to coaching.
So, don't worry about it. If the Thunder do, they're done, so just worry about about winning. Everything else is just context. The Thunder aren't at the "must-win" stage of the season, but they can see it from where they are now. So, while Enes Kanter left the game twice, the first time for a wrist injury and the second time for an ankle injury, he still pitched in with 22 points and 10 rebounds. Westbrook carried the day. The Thunder won again.
And isn't that the only thing that matters now?
Kanter is the most-recent starter to get hurt, the Celtics shot 64 percent in the first half, but Westbrook had 36 points and 10 assists and the Thunder figured out a way to win despite not playing their best and possibly staring at the fact Kanter could be out, too.
Kanter had his sixth double-double in March with 22 points and 10 rebounds, against the Celtics. He returned in the third quarter from a wrist injury. However, he rolled his ankle in the fourth quarter. After the game, Kanter needed help to get from the shower area to his locker, not being able to put any weight on his left ankle. Who knows, though. Maybe Kanter will wake up Thursday morning and be just fine. Perhaps he'll be out another two weeks. Just another question on a long list of things to be answered.
But the Thunder won again. And isn't that the only thing that really matters?
Gone are the days where we talked about seeding or home court advantage. It's all about how to beat the Celtics now. And the Hawks on Friday night.
"We're playing playoff basketball right now," guard D.J. Augustin said. "We're taking every game seriously. We're fighting for the eighth spot, with or without the guys who are injured."
Atlanta up next. Past that, nothing matters.
Follow Andrew Gilman on Twitter: @andrewgilmanOK
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