Westbrook and Wade - Heroes for a night

It’s Game 4 of the NBA Finals. The game is close, within three points heading to the fourth. This is why we’ve been watching the NBA all season. For drama like this, moments like this. Moments for heroes to step up and leave us breathless. It was written in the stars. LeBron James, the guy the world loves to hate, versus Kevin Durant, the guy the world just loves. The game is on the line. The series is on the line. Reputations are on the line. This is it.

And then, just like that, the Batman disappeared and two guys named Russell Westbrook and Dwyane Wade put on a performance for the ages. Oh, and somebody called Super Mario contorted his way to nine game-changing fourth quarter points on an array of layups and jumpers. This wasn’t in the script. But we really should have seen this coming. Should have seen it coming after the careless Wade turnover late Game 3. After RW’s missed trey to tie Game 3. We forget this often, but these guys are extraordinary players. One, a superstar firmly in the second-half of his career, and the other a budding superstar with questionable decision-making skills and a mile long list of critics. In many ways, Westbrook is very similar to a young Dwyane Wade. He’s more athletic than this 30 year old version of Wade, he’s stronger and he’s quicker. But the difference showed. The crafty aging superstar prevailed.

With 15 seconds to go, the Heat (up by 3 points) gained possession off a jump-ball having to shoot within 4 seconds, Westbrook intentionally fouled Chalmers. RW wasn’t following the clock – he simply believed that the shot clock had reset to 24 seconds. Careless. Inexperienced. The difference showed. But RW was the reason the Thunder were in the game at that late stage.

Till then, RW was playing otherworldly basketball. Nothing, and truly nothing, could keep him away from the rim. He finally found his shooting stroke, draining jumper after jumper scoring 11 consecutive OKC points in the fourth, part of a 43-5-7 performance overall. He was magical. It just wasn’t enough, on a night James Harden went 2-10 and Kevin Durant was not his usual fourth quarter self.

Dwyane Wade was on his defensive best, tallying 2 blocks and 2 steals in a tone-setting defensive display late in the fourth while LeBron James looked on from the bench, sidelined by cramps. His defense was quite literally, awesome – the best defensive effort of the season.

Both were heroes for a night. Both play in the shadow of superstars who are heroes every night.

And that’s why they’re the most important players on their teams – they have the toughest roles. Both would be primary option superstars on any other team in the NBA and yet they swallow their huge egos and agree to play second fiddle for championship caliber teams. It’s not easy – to be among the best ten players in the world, but to not be the best on their own teams. Especially for Wade, who has willed his teams to victory single-handedly so many times over. Neither is going to be Finals MVP. But the success of both teams, in many ways, depends on these Robins, these sidekicks. The critics are always there.

Trade RW, they say, because he can’t coexist with Durant. The Heat don’t need Wade much, they said after the Heat went 14-1 in the regular season without Wade. Check for the twitter hashtag #WithoutWade. It’s been quiet for a while. So have the critics calling for RW to be traded. Why?

Because of moments like Game 4. It’s still about Lebron-KD. Wade already has a ring, and Westbrook will get there soon enough. They’re not really rivals and they will never be. This championship will mean the most to LeBron James. It’ll matter to KD’s legacy – he’s got to beat the best to be the best.

But when the story of Game 4 is written, it will be the story of Westbrook’s superhuman effort. The story of Wade defensive prowess. The story of Mario Chalmers. They’ll go back to being second-best next game. Robins, as they’ve been tagged by the story-machine.

But for one game in the NBA Finals, they got to be the heroes.