Westbrook closes in on record
WASHINGTON — Russell Westbrook’s stat lines have been looking like typos in the box score lately — the 14-point, 21-rebound, 24-assist game this week, for example, or the 18-18-14 five nights earlier — and now he’s on the verge of something historic.
The Washington Wizards point guard’s next triple-double, which could come as soon as Saturday in a road game against the Indiana Pacers that has playoff implications, will be the 181st of Westbrook’s career, tying Oscar Robertson’s NBA record that has stood for nearly half a century.
“That’s one of those records that I read about when I was younger. They always made it sound like nobody was ever going to break that, nobody was ever going to pass that,” Wizards center Robin Lopez said. “And Russ has it in his grasp. That’s pretty special.”
Westbrook’s stellar play of late not only has guaranteed him his fourth season averaging a triple-double — the current numbers are 21.8 points, an NBA-best 11.4 assists and 11.4 rebounds (sixth in the league) — but, of more immediate import to the Wizards, also has been translating into victories.
Washington has won 14 of its past 18 contests, including an eight-game winning streak that was the team’s longest run since 2001. It has propelled the Wizards into 10th in the Eastern Conference standings at 31-36, good enough to be in position for a play-in berth, just a half-game behind Indiana for ninth and holders of a 3 1/2-game lead over the 11th-place Chicago Bulls entering Friday.
“The energy, the intensity, the things the analytics don’t understand. The fierce competitiveness. What he instills in our younger players, there’s no analytics for that,” Washington’s Scott Brooks said about Westbrook, a player he also coached years ago with the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The 32-year-old Westbrook, Brooks said after a 131-129 overtime victory against the Toronto Raptors on Thursday night, teaches the team’s younger members “how to get better as a player, how to get better as a teammate, how does the league work.”
Westbrook’s 13 points, 17 rebounds and 17 assists gave him his 34th triple-double of the season and helped Washington beat Toronto for the first time since 2018.
Westbrook, who defines his job as “making others around me better,” objects to the notion that he is merely accumulating statistics.
“I honestly believe there is no player like myself,” said Westbrook, who arrived in Washington via an offseason trade that sent John Wall to the Houston Rockets. “And if people want to take it for granted, sorry for them. But I’m pretty sure if everybody could do it, they would do it.”