Russell Westbrook and the Thunder enter offseason early and facing uncertainty

SALT LAKE CITY - In a few hours it will all be over.

Russell Westbrook's season will be finished, an offseason drenched in uncertainty will commence, and the final image of Westbrook's 2017-18 season will be of him walking off the court, as the other team's streamers fall from the rafters, then slapping at a phone held by an encroaching fan.

But right now, there is hope and focus.

It's 7:20 p.m. on Friday, April 27, and Westbrook sits at his locker, right in the middle of it all. There are five lockers lining the back wall of the visiting locker room at Vivint Smart Home Arena and Westbrook is right in the center. To his left, after one empty space, Paul George waits for a few minutes before leaving to continue his pregame routine elsewhere. To his right, after another empty space, Carmelo Anthony's empty locker. One sound drifts throughout the room and it's coming from Westbrook.

"We were staying in Paris," he sings, then smiles self-consciously in the direction of a Thunder