PHOENIX — Be prepared to be astonished by logic-defying feats and postseason spectacle the likes of which you’ve never seen before and can’t be seen anywhere else!

Welcome to the Russell Westbrook Show.

Naysayers be damned, it seems the Clippers knew what they were getting when they signed Westbrook when he came available late this season. And they knew he wasn’t a shooter.

They knew he was a fighter. A willful, indiscriminate competitor who could give an older, laid-back team the kick in the butt that it so obviously needed, and that it got in Sunday night’s 115-110 cannon shot of a victory over the Phoenix Suns in Game 1 of their first-round Western Conference playoff series at Footprint Center.

The Clippers knew they were getting a 34-year-old veteran who still plays with kid’s energy – who will need his fire to keep spreading among the ranks if they’re going to have real hope of knocking off heavily favored Phoenix in this series.

Westbrook was hot entering play Sunday, averaging 15.8 points in his 21 regular-season games with the Clippers, when he shot 48.9% from the field and 35.6% at 3-point range.

Not the case Sunday. Oh no, the former Lawndale Leuzinger High and UCLA standout was colder than anyone could have thought someone could get in the Phoenix desert.

Even so, he played so well in Sunday’s victory that afterward he was able to laugh about his 3-for-19 shooting effort postgame, amused by the statistic that he also had this line in a 2021 playoff victory.

He showed off his famous gap-toothed grin and joked: “I guess that’s a secret number. We won both games, so (shoot). If it works, then, hey, I’m looking for that!”

Clippers coach Tyronn Lue must have missed that Washington Wizards victory over Philadelphia because after Sunday’s game, he could only marvel at the best 3-for-19 game he’d ever witnessed: “I just saw tonight!”

The Game 1 victory broke from tradition under Lue, because it was the first time in four tries the Clippers won the first game of a playoff series (or five tries, if you count last season’s season-ending play-in defeats).

Fortunately for the Clippers, they have a guy who isn’t exactly the feel-out type fueling the charge.

“You wait for the game, sometime the game go by you,” he said, sagely.

As Kawhi Leonard poured in 38 points on 13-of-24 shooting, Westbrook kept shooting and kept missing.

And kept hustling. Kept chasing, closing, harassing, crashing. He kept leading. Kept keeping the heck on.

He messed with Durant, who shot 7 for 15 and scored only 27 points in 45 minutes – including going scoreless in the first quarter (and the third), just the third time in his career he played 10 minutes or more in a playoff quarter without scoring.

Westbrook also pulled down 10 rebounds, including five at the offensive end (three especially clutch boards during a wild stretch late in the game). He recorded two steals. And he knocked down two clutch free throws with 17.7 seconds left, then blocked Devin Booker’s layup attempt (one of his three rejections) and swatted the ball off the Phoenix All-Star with 10.1 seconds left to give the ball back to the Clippers, who still led 111-108.

It’s the type of professional hooping that stays with impressionable young players like rookie Moussa Diabate: “He’s never going to wait for it; if he feels like something is wrong, he’s gonna say.”

Or 23-year-old Jason Preston: “Even in walk-throughs, he’s ripping through, dunking!”

And that’s the kind of spirit that could give the Clippers a chance in a series they’re not supposed to win.

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“We gotta work,” center Ivica Zubac said. “Missing PG (eight-time All-Star Paul George), it’s big for us, so we know our chances to win this series is be physical, be aggressive, bring a lot of energy. (And Westbrook), he’s hustling every possession, offense and defense, and seeing that just makes you want to be better and do it on a high level.”

So what do you know? Westbrook is what the Clippers needed. An unreliable shooter who you can count on to bring the energy.

That’s what Lue reminded him of mid-game: “I said, ‘Listen, your shots not important,’” Lue recalled. “Take good shots, take the right shots, but what you bring to our team is way more valuable.’ That’s rebounding the basketball. That’s the defense on KD, the stop on Book at the end.

“I said, ‘Don’t worry about the missed shots, you bring more to this team than that.’”

Lue knew what he was getting, and he got who he wanted. And now the fifth-seeded Clippers have punched first and hold a 1-0 lead on the fourth-seeded Suns.

“I’m just grateful and thankful,” Westbrook said. “I know what I bring to a basketball team, and being able to do it here, grateful for that.”

OH MY RUSS@LAClippers | #ClipperNation pic.twitter.com/liQ1Pba7P9

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Russ’ hustle was on in the Game 1 win. pic.twitter.com/3YJSx4IN5M

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— NBA (@NBA) April 17, 2023