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HOUSTON—The first-round NBA playoff series between the Houston Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder—and James Harden and Russell Westbrook—was supposed to be a showdown of the game’s most sublime guards. It was seized instead on Sunday by the game’s most irritating guard.

It would be a nightmare for almost everybody in the NBA to be stuck guarding Westbrook for an entire postseason series. It’s a dream for Patrick Beverley. This is a…