OKLAHOMA CITY -- From the opening seconds of the game Friday night, Patrick Beverley brought the West Side of Chicago with him.
The Houston Rockets point guard had missed the first meeting against the Oklahoma City Thunder in November, recovering from knee surgery.
He was here now, loud, physical and playing with a burst of energy Friday night. He drew a charge on the first play of the game against Russell Westbrook, and when the night was over, Beverley was chest bumping coach Mike D'Antoni.
The Rockets survived a gritty, ugly, alley fight of a game, winning their season-high fifth consecutive game 102-99 over the Thunder.
A victory such as this might start the conversation that the Rockets -- yes these Rockets -- should be mentioned with some of the elite teams in the Western Conference.
"I think we're there in the conversation," D’Antoni said. "Now the conversation may be short, but we're there. It doesn't mean anything, it's way too early, we just got to get better."
Beverley is part of a major conversation, too.
He was matched against Westbrook, a player he bothers to no end. Westbrook was still able to record his seventh consecutive triple-double of the season: 27 points, 10 assists and 10 rebounds. In reality, did it matter?
With Beverley on him, Westbrook went 2-for-12 from the field, with two turnovers and five missed 3-pointers. Beverley contested 10 of the 12 shots, including one of the toughest shots of the game.
"A dog," Trevor Ariza yelled toward Beverley in the Rockets' locker room after the game.
"It was fun, it was like playing in the streets in the playground," Beverley said.
It was a defensive stand by the Rockets at the end that sealed the win, and Beverley's grit, high basketball IQ and emotion was all over the place.
In the closing moments, the Thunder trailed by one with the ball. Guess who got it? Westbrook, on the wing, with Beverley covering him. Westbrook's shot was short as Beverley stuck with him with 6.9 seconds to play.
"I don't want to say what I want to say," Beverley said. "But we tried to send bodies and force him into a crowd and make it real tough for him, and we were fortunate. He's a really, really, really, really good player, and we were fortunate to come up with a stop."
The game wasn't over. Ariza made two foul shots with 5.8 seconds left, pushing the lead to three. The Thunder had one more chance after a timeout, but Westbrook was denied the inbounds pass. Anthony Morrow missed a 3.
Guess who grabbed the rebound?
And as the Rockets' bench arose at the final buzzer, Beverley threw the ball downcourt and saw D'Antoni, standing arms crossed.
Beverley ran toward his coach and chest bumped him twice. The men were smiling as D'Antoni patted the heart and soul of this Rockets team on the back.
"I almost knocked his ass over the scorer's table," Beverley said. "D'Antoni was almost out. That's my guy, though, man."
Sometimes it's not about scoring when it comes to Beverley. He scored only three points as he missed seven of eight shots. But he snagged a career-high-tying 12 rebounds, had 5 assists and 2 steals. In the past two games, Beverley has 19 rebounds.
"Pat is for sure, first-team all-defense," James Harden said. "He's for sure one of the candidates for Defensive Player of the Year. Night in and night out, he does some intangible things that don't show up on the stat sheet, but it wins us games. For us, it was that last play against Russ. He had the air ball, we got the rebound, and they fouled us. He's been doing it since he's been back, and that's what he does."