Russell Westbrook Triple-Double Watch: Game 54, and the hardest week of the season
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, 10.5 rebounds and 10.2 assists 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.
[Read & React Newsletter: 5 great stories from the Yahoo Sports blogs in your inbox every morning!]
Russell Westbrook is working within what is easily the headiest regular season week of his professional career. He’s not alone in that regard, but it’s worth recognizing.
The OKC guard, hoping to lead his Thunder through injury woes and back into the realm of championship contention, has been stuck in steady focus since the outset of his season as he works toward the triple-double goals we’ve projected onto him. This week especially should take on an entirely different look in view of what’s expected of Westbrook and his crew.
We’re already aware of Saturday’s ABC showing of Kevin Durant’s return to Oklahoma City, his first game back since leaving the Thunder last July, a move that began the “feud” and “fake drama” (as perpetuated by the conniving media) that will last until a conversation between the two former teammates finally goes on record.
The wins, with OKC a healthy chunk of victories behind the best and brightest that the West has to offer, are of paramount importance. This isn’t to suggest wins weren’t already held in the highest of regards to begin with, as the triple-double approach has never been an actual “approach” for the 28-year old star, but this week will provide one challenge after another.
[ | Mock Draft | The Vertical | Latest news]
Starting on Thursday, when LeBron James and his Cavaliers visit Westbrook in Oklahoma City, and moving into Saturday with Kevin Durant’s return. From there, the Thunder will head to Washington to take on a Wizards team that has lost just once at home (in perhaps the NBA’s game of the season, on Tuesday) since Dec. 6.
Suddenly, counting assists doesn’t seem so rational. Not that Westbrook, or predecessor Oscar Robertson, has ever fallen prey to checking the box scores midstream. Sam Amick of USA Today caught up to Oscar recently to discuss his ongoing chance, and its function within the context of team play:
“I admire Westbrook for what he’s doing; he’s just playing outstanding basketball,” Robertson told USA TODAY Sports. “There’s a little comparison (between their special seasons), but not a lot. I think what he’s doing is outstanding, myself, especially with a team that’s been weakened since Kevin Durant left. That makes a big difference. So therefore, he’s taken it upon himself to try to do whatever he can to help his team to win.”
Lest you think Oscar is offering a qualifier, let’s remind ourselves that he’s not wrong. The Thunder structures everything around Westbrook, in his first full year without Durant as a teammate. Warriors (and new Kevin Durant-coach) head man Steve Kerr pointed as much out in the same feature:
“The way their team is constructed now, they run everything through him, so it affords him that opportunity to really handle the ball more and be the focal point every time down. It probably was the same way with Oscar.”
It was! And Oscar, again, is accurate in recognizing that Kevin Durant’s absence opened things up in a whole lot of ways for Russell, freedom that Robertson himself didn’t enjoy as much as recent retellings of his first few seasons with the Cincinnati Royals would have you believe.
The guy wasn’t Allen Iverson. He wasn’t even Russell Westbrook. He had help, in Cincinnati, and not just in the form of a roped-off table at Frisch’s Big Boy.
[Follow Ball Don’t Lie on social media: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Tumblr]
It’s true that the Big O was a high school, NCAA and international (with his gold medal turn on the 1960 Team USA squad) sensation upon joining the 19-win Royals in 1960, but those Royals also featured one of the NBA’s giants in terms of both play, and citizenship in the great Jack Twyman.
Twyman averaged 31.2 points per game in 1959-60, the year before Oscar joined the NBA, good for No. 2 in the NBA behind Wilt Chamberlain that season. By then a four-time All-Star, his averages dropped to 25 and then 22 points per game in Robertson’s first two seasons, with the young University of Cincinnati product averaging a triple-double in each of his first two seasons.
The Royals continued to struggle, though, winning just 33 and 43 games in each campaign. The Royals made the playoffs in 1962, the last year of Robertson’s triple-double average, but were dropped in the first round by a 37-win Pistons team (led by 30-year old Gene Shue) despite showcasing Twyman’s 22-and-8 rebound season, Robertson’s 31-point, 12-rebound, 11-assist averages, and double-double years from Wayne Embry (20 points and 13 rebounds) and center Bob Boozer (13 points and 10 boards).
Five Royals averaged double-figure points in the team’s first round loss, leading many to conclude that the One Man Show-approach might not be the best for what looked to be, on paper at least, a formidable club that could challenge the Celtics and (playing in their second season in Los Angeles) Lakers clubs of the day.
With Westbrook’s Thunder a full 14 1/2 games behind the Warriors for the top spot in the West in 2016-17, it’s clear that the discussion deserves to rage on. We’re into discussions, and not declarations. We’ve all got a lot to learn about this game.
OKC probably misses the scoring and rebounding presence of the injured Enes Kanter (Westbrook has averaged “just” 9.1 assists since Kanter decided to fight a chair), but the team has been the fifth-luckiest out of 30 NBA teams in terms of contests lost due to injury, according to ManGamesLost.com. Few expected the Thunder to challenge Durant’s Warriors and the rest of the Western elite, but should Oklahoma City still be two games in back of Memphis? Stuck with the No. 7 seed in the conference?
A big part of us wants more from this setting. Russell Westbrook is too good, too accomplished, and his team has too much potential to be paced this far away from the modern greats. The same went for Robertson’s Royals; a team we will always afford unending caveats to as they ran in the era of Bill Russell’s Celtics (amongst just eight other NBA teams at the time), but one can’t shake the nagging feeling that the Royals probably could have achieved more beyond great stats and unending shots of Oscar Robertson backing in on a helpless defender.
Oklahoma City’s upcoming schedule – those Cavs, Durant, your sprightly Wizards – could go a long way toward re-establishing a bit of championship credibility.
All the Thunder has to do is beat the champs, then the best team in the NBA, followed by a victory over one of the hottest clubs in the league. In a five-day span.
What Russell Westbrook would have to average from here on out in order to sustain his 30-point and triple-double average (which hasn’t happened since Oscar Robertson achieved the mark during the 1961-62 NBA season):
Westbrook could average 28.27 points, 9.06 rebounds and 9.58 assists over his next 29 games and keep his triple-double averages, alongside 30 points per game.
– – – – – – –
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!