There are rumors swirling that Russell Westbrook and Damian Lillard have a heated beef not just on the court but off the court as well. But after the duel between the Washington Wizards and the Portland Trail Blazers on Saturday, Westbrook showed massive respect to Damian Lillard in response to how he defended the star guard.

In the post-game interview, Westbrook shared that the key to containing Damian Lillard is to make life tough for him. He expounded that this is an ideal scenario as Lillard is used to making difficult shots simply because that's what elite players do.

“He’s going to take tough shots. He’s going to take tough ones and make tough ones. That’s what great players do,” Westbrook said of Damian Lillard, per Hoop District.

The two have been battling one another since 2012 — Lillard's first year in the league. In an interview last year with hip hop icon Fat Joe, Damian Lillard said that Westbrook is his “arch-nemesis” for the mere fact that they go hard at one another whenever they play.

“If I had to say I had an arch nemesis, it would probably be Russ [Westbrook], because when me and Russ play, we going after each other,” Lillard said in an Instagram Live with Fat Joe. “It’s been that way every time we’ve played since I’ve been in the NBA. Eight straight years of just me and him going at each other.”

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In celebration of Dame and Russ's little rivalry, check out some of the sequences below. Notice how extra aggressive they are. Even after the whistle, both Damian Lillard and Russell Westbrook want to get ahead of one another.

Damian Lillard and Russell Westbrook have locked horns in the Western Conference playoffs before, when Russ was with the Oklahoma City Thunder. Lillard eliminated OKC. Now the two men are in different conferences, but the recent Wizards-Blazers game stoked some of the fires in this rivalry.