Comedian Chris Trew is a New Orleans Pelicans superfan who has a single season ticket directly behind the visitors’ bench inside the Smoothie King Center, where he chats with and listens to the opposing team. He will be documenting some of his interactions with players and coaches here for us in a regular column called, Behind the Bench.

The Pelicans’ opponent in this column: the Oklahoma City Thunder.

It’s hard to not focus 100 percent of your attention on Russell Westbrook when he’s in the building. During the warmups he’s on the ground getting stretched out and when he gets up, excitement is in the air. He walks away from the team for some me-time about 30 seconds before the PA announcer calls his name in the starting lineup and everyone’s eyes follow him.

When he sprints out of the corner and through the line of high-fives, everyone stares. During a timeout Westbrook sits in the coach’s chair and holds court. Russell Westbrook is everywhere because he needs to be; Russell Westbrook is everywhere because he wants to be. I’ve sat behind Tim Duncan, Steph Curry, Paul Pierce, Chris Paul and never felt as uncomfortable as I did sitting behind Russ. I didn’t even want to make eye contact with him.

In the second quarter, Russ registered a brief stint on the bench. Tyreke Evans was fouled and as he went to the line Westbrook stood up and loudly said, “he wants layups! He doesn’t want to shoot!” When Tyreke then missed one of his free throws, Westbrook shouted “told you!” and mean mugged my row. We didn’t deserve it but we got it and that’s fair. We’ll get back to him soon, but for now my non-Westbrook tidbits are as follows:

— Steven Adams is one of those bigger-than-you-think-he-is types and is very good at tuning out the noise. The only time I was able to get his attention was when he was having trouble lifting the cover off the Gatorade cups and I asked him if he needed help. He snarled then winked at me. Then he consumed about six more cups of Gatorade over the course of the first half, the most I’ve ever seen a player drink.

— After a timeout, a player said “defense on 3” then the players chanted “1” then “2” then nobody said anything afterwards. No “defense” and no “3”. No nothing. Either this is tradition or they are not particularly worried about the New Orleans Pelicans.

— Enes Kanter was the Hot Head Player of the Game (we should get a sponsor for this). He was experiencing the magical combination of no foul ever being his fault while also being fouled himself on every single play. He also kept screaming “get your hands off me” to whoever was guarding him. I am not surprised he hurt his hand punching a chair the next night in Oklahoma City as he seemed easily rattled. I am not happy Enes Kanter hurt his hand, but if you would have asked me after this game “which Thunder player is most likely to hurt his hand punching a chair?,” I would have said Enes Kanter first, Billy Donovan second (more on him soon), then Enes Kanter third.