Thunder point guard Russell Westbrook has gone at virtually every opponent he has faced this season and Minnesota Timberwolves center Karl-Anthony Towns is no different.
Towns led the Timberwolves to a 131-120 win over the Thunder on Tuesday night as he recorded 41 points and 14 rebounds. The fourth-year big man completely dominated as the Thunder had no answer for him.
In the midst of his outing, Towns began trash-talking the Thunder, including Westbrook. As Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic detailed, Westbrook wasn’t having any of it.
“Get to the [expletive] playoffs before you speak to me,” Westbrook yelled back at Towns.
Some are a bit confused at the response by Westbrook as the Timberwolves made the playoffs last year for the first time since the 2003-04 season. Perhaps Westbrook was talking about making the playoffs this year since the Timberwolves need a lot of help to make it — they are currently 5.5 games back of the final playoff spot.
Opponents and trash talk go hand-in-hand for Westbrook, though.
Westbrook infamously has a longstanding beef with Patrick Beverley. In fact, police were needed to keep the two separated after an incident back in October after Westbrook took exception with Beverley diving at his knees.
The Thunder point guard also got into it with Jamal Murray back in December. Westbrook didn’t like Murray changing his position during a jump-ball situation and shoved him as a result. Each player was whistled for a technical foul in the skirmish.
Then in January, Westbrook was seen yelling at Damian Lillard that he has been “busting” him up for years now. As it turns out, those two players face each other once again on Thursday.
This isn’t even counting his beef with Joel Embiid so Westbrook has his fair share of problems around the league. It has certainly made some games more entertaining as a result.
