The Damian Lillard Russell Westbrook Rivalry was real long before the NBA Playoffs, so let’s break down this NBA Rivalry. #Lillard #NBA #Rivalry First, we just witnessed greatness. I was watching this possession and I’m like why has he not made his move as the time went down to 3 seconds. Yeah, that’s because he hit a 37 footer to win the series and even waved goodbye to the Thunder. Just perfect. Russell Westbrook hates everyone. First it was Embiid, and they still don’t like each other. Now it’s Damian Lillard. But this rivalry started before this playoffs and before this year, so let’s break this down.
Westbrook and Lillard have matched up for 28 times including these playoffs. That’s a lot. And in the regular season, Westbrook leads 12-11 in wins. Let’s go back to 2016 when Russell Westbrook for some reason just kicked the ball away from Lillard as he tried to pick it up. Lillard took exception to that and they both started to argue. Honestly, it didn’t really make sense at the time. I mean why kick the ball away from a guy trying to pick it up. Looking at that game, the Thunder were down 9 at that point in the game. Even when Russ was asked after the game why he kicked the ball, he said “I don’t know” in typical defiant Westbrook fashion. Lillard played it off and said that they were cool, but that’s Lillard’s personality. Lillard typically has a calm head on him. Yeah he can get fired up but he’s more of a laid back person. The Trail Blazers would end up winning that game, but the next 3 times they met that season, Russell Westbrook dropped 42, 45, and 58 points. Yes this was during his MVP season, but even for Westbrook, those numbers are crazy.
And then in January of 2018, Damian Lillard said he was frustrated that he hadn’t made the all star team for the past two years. Damian Lillard was selected for the All-Star team by the coaches and then Westbrook came out and said that you’ve got guys complaining about getting snubbed until they get in, you’ve got guys just talking about it all the time. But the guys that deserve it, are not. Even if Westbrook was lobbying for his teammate Paul George to make the team, he pretty much disrespected Lillard who was vocal about being snubbed. Damian Lillard would say that he respects Russ a lot so it was disappointing.
In January of this year, Russ made the now famous comments that he’s been busting that ass for years. This crossover definitely did not help Damian’s cause. It was really the first real trash talk that was caught on camera or visible beef between the two in a game since 2016. Russ hadn’t really trash talked in the entire game until the end of the fourth quarter with Damian Lillard at the line.
Game 2 was when Lillard and Russ got tangled and tensions started to rise. Lillard defends Russ well on this play, gets hype, and proceeds to make a 31 footer. Throughout the series and especially in game 3, Westbrook was calling Lillard a b*tch after almost every basket he scored. Game 3 was the Thunder’s only win and they put on a lot of antics from Paul George’s last dunk as time was expiring to all the trash talk. Schroder mocked Dame time. Harkless said it was good to shut them up after their game 4 win. Westbrook did his infamous rock a baby twice on Lillard. Lillard would later say that you do that celebration if you overpower someone, not if you should jumpshots out of the post.
Before Game 5, Lillard had a few people over for dinner and said that Westbrook was celebrating all wild and saying some wild shit. And quote, “That’s the difference between us.” because Lillard wasn’t talking trash to Westbrook. He was just doing his job. Lillard also said “Stop running from this ass whoopin” while showing clips of Russ switching off of Dame while Dame was guarding Russ on the other end. And he has a point. You can’t be talking all this trash and not even guard the other player. That’s facts. And he concluded that he was gonna finish those motherffers in the next game. Well damn Dame. Just wow.
And then Game 5 happened. Dame waved goodbye to the Thunder because the series was over. It was retaliation for all the trash talk and mockery that the Thunder did in Game 3. Paul George said it was a bad shot, Dame responded with a lol and said if anything it was bad defense. Straight savage. Dame also posted this on instagram and captioned it, on to the next. Straight savage. And that leads us to today and where we are in the rivalry.
The Thunder Trail Blazers rivalry was already getting real, but this solidified it. There’s bad blood between Westbrook and Lillard, and it seems like Dame had the final words to say which he earned and Westbrook fizzled out and just didn’t perform at the level he needed to. This is definitely an exciting rivalry because it’s point guard vs point guard. But what do you think? Who’s the better player?
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