KANSAS CITY, MO. “”mdash; Guard Russell Westbrook saw the bench a few times Tuesday night, but only on timeouts. Even after hitting his knee hard on a play in the lane, Westbrook was immediately back in after the stoppage of play and went on to play all 40 minutes.
Coach Ben Howland thought it was Westbrook’s pride more than anything that got hurt on the play.
“I think he was more embarrassed that he got his dunk thrown back at him trying to attack the rim instead of pulling up for the jump shot. It was convenient that his knee was bothering him.”
Howland didn’t have any option but to call on the sophomore to go the whole way, even after Westbrook played 38 minutes the night before.
For the first time during their young season, the Bruins really felt the burden of only having eight scholarship players available, with their starters having to log a great deal of minutes against a tough opponent.
“It’s hard when you’re essentially playing six guys,” Howland said. “I think Nik (Dragovic) played eight minutes and Chace (Stanback) played three, so the other (guys) played 189 minutes. That’s a lot of minutes, especially in back to back nights.”
The absence of Darren Collison, Michael Roll and James Keefe had been apparent in the team’s previous games, but it hadn’t yet had too significant an influence on the complexion of the game.
But on Tuesday, the Bruins went down early as the Spartans came out playing tough and subbing often.
The contributions from the Michigan State bench more than accounted for the difference at half time. The score was 36-25 Michigan State at the break; the Spartans had 20 first half points off the bench, while the Bruins had zero. The trend in statistics continued in the second half with Michigan State finishing with 40 points off the bench and Lorenzo Mata-Real scoring the only two points from the UCLA bench.
While the Bruin players continued to go without the luxury of bench scoring throughout, it was in the first half that the Spartans’ superior depth had the biggest impact on the game’s momentum.
“They were picking us apart when we got fatigued at the end of the first half with some of their sets,” Howland said. “A guy reverse dunked on us; that’s not a fun thing for our guys to witness.”
In the second half, Howland’s players came out with increased energy. The Spartan lead began to disappear, until the Bruins tied the score late in the game.
“We were down 10 or 11 and we were trying to come back,” forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute said. “Of course we had to pick up the intensity and play harder. We came out and made a point to play harder.”
Along with the intensity, UCLA’s shooting improved from 24.1 percent in the first half to 55.2 percent in the second half.
“(We) started shooting the ball a little better, started making those shots,” center Kevin Love said. “We pulled through against a very good Michigan State team.”
Michigan State’s biggest threat off of the bench was an unexpected one. Guard Drew Neitzel, the team’s most acclaimed player, was not in the starting five due to a stomach virus. Neitzel did come off the bench to play 25 minutes, providing a big spark to his team’s offense.
The Bruins may have to continue to survive with a shortened rotation for the immediate future, as Howland has commented that he does not want to rush Collison’s return to the lineup and may possibly keep him out until the Wooden Classic on Dec. 8. But for now, Howland is just happy to give his team some rest.
“We played back to back nights,” Howland said. “We need a couple days to recover from this back to back grueling gauntlet.”