"Russell Westbrook walked off the court, and Scottie Brooks was waiting with a few words. Westbrook barked back at his coach. For a moment, the Oklahoma City Thunder looked ready to crack. Already down one game to the Dallas Mavericks in the Western Conference finals, they'd given up another lead near the end of the third quarter. Westbrook took his seat on the bench, barked some more, and weren't these young Thunder finally showing their immaturity?

"Just sitting there, waiting to get my name called," Westbrook would later say.

He's still waiting. Brooks never went back to Westbrook, and this says something about how much not only the Thunder, but also their coach, have grown. They beat the Mavericks 106-100 with Brooks surrounding Kevin Durant with four reserves, with their All-Star point guard sitting. They flew home with a split in these West finals, leaving town with a new reason to believe in themselves and the man guiding them.

Scottie Brooks doesn't offer much in the way of sound bites or sideline histrionics, but this is also true: After Thursday, no one's questioning the size of his Spaldings.

"If you tell me they leave Westbrook out in the whole fourth quarter and we don't get stops to win," Dirk Nowitzki said, " … that would be tough."

The Thunder won because Brooks had the courage to stick with what was working. More than anything, he had the courage to let his backup point guard, Eric Maynor, close the game instead of his All-Star.

Brooks said his decision had more to do with Maynor than Westbrook, and there's truth in that. Teaching points are made in the regular season – not Game 2 of the conference finals.

Intentional or not, Brooks delivered a lesson to these young Thunder: Production matters more than status. Brooks trusts his guys, and he's going with whoever will help him win. For a young coach, these are the kind of moments that win territory in the locker room.

"Coach made the right decisions down the stretch," Kendrick Perkins said. "He rolled with guys when they were rolling."

For nearly the entire fourth quarter, the only OKC starter on the floor was Durant. James Harden scored 23 points on just nine shots. Nick Collison helped body Nowitzki and anchor OKC's defense. Daequan Cook also hit some big shots. But even Brooks admitted only "very rarely" has he sat Westbrook down the stretch in favor of Maynor.

"I didn't want to mess with the rhythm," Brooks said.

There's another coach about five hours south down Interstate 35 who adheres to the same philosophy. Gregg Popovich has managed the San Antonio Spurs for years this way. You go with whoever's going good. When Tony Parker was ineffective in the Spurs' run to the 2003 title, Popovich frequently used Speedy Claxton to close games."