Oklahoma City Thunder point guard Russell Westbrook made the case for Paul George as the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year after a dominant outing against the Portland Trail Blazers, resulting in a 123-114 win on Tuesday night.

“He should be,” said Westbrook when asked if he felt George deserved the title of DPOY. “He's in the top one or two in steals, deflections, loose balls, I don't know what his defensive rating [is]. I don't know what we have with these different stats, but you know, we'll see how it goes. They may have already picked one already. Sometimes that's how it goes.”

George finished with a brilliant 36 points, eight rebounds, four assists, five steals and a blocked shot in 38 minutes — a mixed bag that spearheaded this Thunder team to a vital win against the very team that trails them in the standings.

He stands second in the league to Westbrook with 2.33 steals per game, only a whisker away from the top spot as the NBA's king of thefts.

George (102.4) cracks the top-10 in defensive rating, but it is Westbrook who occupies the No. 5 spot with a 100.3 defensive rating this season.

Furthermore, Westbrook is the only guard in the top-10 and the only backcourt player not named Victor Oladipo or Eric Bledsoe to make the top-20 in defensive rating.

While he could be making a case for himself, it is George who has cracked the First Team All-Defense (2014) and Second Team All-Defense twice (2013, 2016).

Westbrook's only defensive accolades are outside the NBA, as he was named the Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year during his lone season at UCLA before declaring for the NBA Draft in 2008.