Oklahoma City Thunder point Russell Westbrook is out for the playoffs after suffering a serious knee injury and undergoing surgery and although the team defeated the Houston Rockets in game 3 without him, was the play where he was injured dirty?
Many in the league and in the media called foul on the play, which saw rookie Patrick Beverley lunge for a steal while Westbrook was pulling up for a timeout. His hip knocked into the point guard's knee, and while it didn't look serious initially, the tear was diagnosed in his knee and now he is out of the lineup for the first time in his young career. Kevin Durant scored 41 points in his absence and he also went after Jeremy Lin on a similar play to possibly send the Rockets a message.
Westbrook will now be out as the team tries to make it to the finals for the second straight season and he has played in nearly 400 straight regular season games and 45 playoff games at the time when the injury happened. Was the play dirty?