A funny concept in basketball is a player being “posterized.” The idea is a player attempts another player that is about to dunk the ball. However, they fail so badly that the image of their failure will undoubtedly be used for the dunker’s poster (or basketball card. Do people still collect those?) In last night’s game against the Jazz, Lakers guard Russell Westbrook had such a play.
And given that the Lakers have been struggling to stay above 0.500 this season, partly due to Westbrook’s declining play, and the Jazz have been a top team out West, the narrative of the Lakers beating the Jazz is a big deal. And the play that keeps coming up for this game is this one.
And, basketball zeitgeist? We need to talk. The concept of posterizing, especially examples like this, is odd. Let’s start, NBA players are giant. Yes, you have rare exceptions like Muggsy Bogues. But even the scrappy “role players” tend to be over six feet and muscle-bound. For most of us, if we saw them at our local gym, they’d be described as the massive guy at our gym. The notion that intentionally standing in front of any basketball player running straight at you is in some ways embarrassing has always been funny to me. Seeing old clips of, say Shaq, “posterizing people?” Whatever soul is willing to stand in front of a 7 foot plus, three-hundred-pound plus, ball of muscle trying to jump over them deserves a poster and statue in their honor!
But let’s get back to Westbrook’s impressive play. LeBron James sets a pick on Royce O’Neal (23), guarding Westbrook. The critical breakdown is Bojan Bogdanovic (44), guarding LeBron James. Before Bron makes the pick, Bojan has completely lost him. So when he’s supposed to switch onto Westbrook, he’s out of position. Gobert, who is supposed to be guarding Dwight Howard, decides to stand in front of Westbrook. It ends poorly. Westbrook makes the basket, gets fouled, and is heading to the line for a three-point play, which he converts. But, due to gloating after the play, he gets a technical foul, and his three-point play amounts to a two-point play. Still good, but that’s the funny part.
End of the game? Westbrook, in theory, helped the Jazz, not the Lakers! His Points over Par, which estimates the margin of a win or loss the player is responsible for, is -0.8. Westbrook rebounded very well, with eight. But he only had a 3-2 assist to turnover ratio, which is pretty subpar for a point guard. The more significant issue is he shot 5-14 from the field, which is terrible. From up close? He went 3-6, which is awful given that the NBA average for close shots is almost 70%! Westbrook had one excellent, memorable play in the game, but on the whole, he hurt his team.
Rudy Gobert, on the other hand? He had a great game, with a Points over Par of 7.1. He scored 19 points (four more than Westbrook), grabbed 16 boards and 3 blocks. Gobert’s boxscore posterized Westbrook’s. And the Westbrook play is pretty symbolic. Gobert was “embarrassed” because Bogdanovic messed up his assignment. End of the game, Bojan went 1-9 from the field and ended with a Points over Par of -8.7, which completely negated Gobert’s outstanding performance put together with Westbrook’s poor performance.
The truly tough part about basketball relative to so many other sports is the sheer volume of possessions in a game. Last night’s game had roughly 194 possessions between the Lakers and the Jazz. Westbrook’s dunk was one of them, and when we look at all of Westbrook’s other possessions? Whatever value his dunk added was widdled away. Give any team tens of tries against a top defender or defense, and eventually, they’ll get a spectacular play. But if you focus on that, you’ll miss the big picture. Westbrook’s dunk on Gobert was a poster, a single image in time. It wasn’t a highlight reel. And for a game that’s one long movie, you’d think that would make it less memorable, not more.
-Dre