Russell Westbrook Triple-Double Watch: Game 20, versus Washington
Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook is threatening to become the first NBA player to average a triple-double since Cincinnati Royals Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson achieved the double-figure points, assists and rebounds mark during the 1961-62 NBA season. A lot has changed in the league since then, which is why Westbrook’s current averages of 30.9 points, 11.3 assists and 10.3 rebounds would make such a feat a remarkable achievement in line with some of the greatest individual seasons in NBA history. If not the greatest individual season in NBA history.
As Westbrook takes on each new opponent while the OKC season drawls on, we’ll be updating his chances at matching the Big O’s feat.
Entering Wednesday night’s home contest against the Washington Wizards, Russell will need four rebounds in order to sustain his triple-double average. He will need 12 points in order to stay above 30 points per game, and six assists to maintain his average of over 11 dimes per game.
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The Wizards contest presents yet another fascinating storyline for the 11-8 Thunder, as the contest will mark the first appearance in Oklahoma City by ex-Thunder coach Scott Brooks. Brooks, who had never led a team as head coach before, ran the club from 2009 through 2014-15, piling up a sterling 338-207 record as Thunder coach while leading the team to the 2012 NBA Finals.
Despite winning 62 percent of his games as head coach in OKC, Brooks’ teams were criticized for what appeared to outsiders as a rudimentary offense, and his prime seasons as coach (from 2012-13 through his final campaign) were marred by crippling injuries to Westbrook, ex-Thunder star Kevin Durant and Serge Ibaka.
Brooks was hired by the Wizards prior to 2016-17 and has struggled with his new team despite playoff expectations, as Washington will enter the contest at 6-10 despite a home-heavy schedule thus far.
In his first return to the arena he appeared in charge of for seven seasons, Brooks isn’t expecting an overwrought reception. From Brett Dawson at the Oklahoman.
“That’s a little ambitious if I’m thinking they’re gonna give me an ovation,” Brooks told a group of reporters, adding later that he was “hoping” for a warm response.
[…]
“There’s no hard feelings.”
[…]
“We had a great run,” said Brooks, who sat out last season before taking the Wizards job. “Unfortunately it ended for me, but that’s the business we’re in. I have a lot of respect for the organization. I have a tremendous amount of respect for the players that I coached.”
The line runs both ways. Remember, Brooks is the guy who kicked point man Earl Watson – a coach’s dream and eventual NBA head coach – out of the starting lineup a month into Westbrook’s rookie year in order to move the former UCLA hybrid guard into the realm of expectation. From Royce Young at ESPN:
“Scotty’s my guy,” Westbrook said Tuesday. “He gave me a real shot to be able to do some of the things [I do] and make mistakes and he always had my back in that situation. Especially when I first got here. He was always the one who had my back through those times, and he’s obviously a good coach as well.”
Westbrook averaged 15.3 points, 5.3 assists and 4.9 rebounds per game in 32.5 minutes a night during his rookie year back in 2008-09. He’s looking to double those marks in 2016-17.
This will be the first meeting between the two teams this season, but Westbrook did average 19.5 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists in two games against the Wizards (and All-Star counterpart John Wall, in both contests) last season. He notched a triple-double in both games.
That’s a category Westbrook has hit for eight times this season alone. Longtime readers of Ball Don’t Lie will no doubt note that the obsession with the category can fly a little over the top – what would you rather have, Jason Kidd giving you 12 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds or LeBron James handing you 30, nine boards and seven assists? – and the repeated reminder that Oscar Robertson did his brilliant early 1960s work in an entirely different era.
One that saw far, far more possessions per game, worse shooting rates and a ball-dominant style from Robertson that would make Westbrook blush were he capable of such emotion.
Hopefully, at this point, we’re all aware of the disconnect between the eras. What we should be careful in doing, just before reminding of the disparate journeys toward the achievement, is dismissing Robertson entirely. As actor and producer Michael Rapaport apparently did early on Wednesday:
.@MichaelRapaport to @CariChampion now: "Oscar Robertson would be lucky to be a 12th man on the bench" in today's NBA. I love pure comedy.
— Mike Wise (@MikeWiseguy) November 30, 2016
Now that we’ve spent a decade and a half learning about the difference in eras, SB Nation’s Tom Ziller writes, it’s probably time to stop ourselves before we get to a point where we’re denigrating one of the best basketball players of all time, and his famed contributions:
We act as if getting 10 rebounds and 10 assists per game was so easy 55 years ago. Yet a single player managed to accomplish it once, and no one has matched it since.
The Big O was a total outlier in his time, just as Westbrook is today. Robertson didn’t just average a triple-double for the season for the only time in NBA history. He finished fifth in points per game and fourth in field goal percentage. He was superlative in every sense of the word, just as Westbrook is today. As we celebrate Westbrook’s accomplishments, let’s be sure not to step on those who made these accomplishments so special in the first place.
Oscar Robertson was an unyieldingly dogged, talented and cerebral player. We’d call him “unerring” were it not for that oft-dismissed era that he played in, one that saw just six (out of nine) NBA teams making the playoffs that season.
“I’m pretty sure he was a tough one to guard,” Westbrook said.
So does Jo Jo White, the Hall of Fame Celtics guard who had to battle the Big O’s backdowns, fighting through the two-man games he created with (at first) Wayne Embry and then (during White’s time in Boston) a young Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
From Sean Deveney at the Sporting News:
“There was no one tougher,” White recalled. “He was just very determined, he wanted the ball in his hands, and he had so many ways he could beat you. It was never a one-on-one thing when you were guarding him. The whole defense had to be on him, you had to pressure him from end to end because if you let him set up where he wanted to, no matter what you did, he was going to find a way to score. He controlled the tempo, he controlled the team, he was either going to set himself up or one of his teammates up. He could control the entire game.”
Warriors color man Jim Barnett, who gets an up close look at what the modern game has to offer on a near-nightly basis, also chimed in to remind us all that guarding Oscar Robertson was a hellish task:
“Oscar was 6-5 and very strong, and liked to back you down,” Barnett said. “He was very deliberate, totally different than Westbrook, who tries to go by you and through you with speed and athleticism. Oscar was very different. Oscar would pass up an 18-footer — wide open, no one around — to wait for you to get on him and then move to a spot off the elbow, a 14-footer or 15-footer, with you hanging all over him.
“He wanted contact. He used to take his off hand and put it on my hip and thigh, and pull himself around and move you out of the way. He got away with it because he was Oscar Robertson.”
The notices are out. And, every day as we grow wiser, the stark differences in eras have been recognized. In some ways, to a faulty degree.
The quest continues Wednesday night in Oklahoma City.
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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!