Intense Westbrook, Green are triple-double machines
OKLAHOMA CITY — They may have finished seventh and fourth, respectively, in Most Valuable Player voting, but Golden State forward Draymond Green and Oklahoma City guard Russell Westbrook ran away with a couple of honors this season.
Westbrook had 18 tripledoubles in the regular season, tied for the eighth-most ever (Oscar Robertson and Wilt Chamberlain occupy the top seven spots). Green had 13 in the regular season, has one more in the playoffs, and Friday was awarded the Most Annoying Player Award by Oklahoma City center Steven Adams.
“He’s peaked with annoyingness,” Adams said.
Adams was answering a question about Green’s peskiness on the court, where both Green and Westbrook seem to be on another level when it comes to intensity. While Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant might score more points for the two teams in the Western Conference finals, which resumes Sunday with Game 3 at Oklahoma City, it is their two teammates who are always around the ball and could well decide who breaks the 1-1 tie and advances to the NBA Finals.
Fierce competitors
Warriors executive board member and Hall of Famer Jerry West loves a lot of things about both players’ games.
“Getting that many triple-doubles is incredible, especially for a guy like Draymond at forward,” West said. “It’s a sign of two players who are multiskilled, have a high basketball intelligence, are busy and active and are always looking for ways to get better.”
But those aren’t his favorite things about the two.
“They refuse to lose,” West said. “Draymond has a ferocoity about him, but you can tell he’s having fun every nowandthen. Russell never smiles on the court. He competes his fanny off every night. Two great, great competitors.”
Westbrook, a 6-4 guard who likes to throw his body inside, finished the regular season just 2.2 rebounds per game shy of averaging a triple-double, with 23.5 points per game, 10.4 rebounds and 7.8 rebounds. He even got a triple-double in the first half of a game.
“Just competing,” Westbrook said. “Competing at a high level is the only way I know how to play. Let’s see who wants to win more.”
The Thunder are 18-0 when Westbrook gets a triple-double this season. The 18 triple-doubles tied Magic Johnson for the most in a single season in the past 49 years.
Cleveland’s LeBron James, busy burning down the rest of the Eastern Conference, had a triple-double Thursday night and is seventh all-time with 40. He thinks Green and Westbrook are proof that we’re in a golden age of the NBA.
“The fact that you’re getting triple-doubles from not only point guards in Russell Westbrook, you’re getting triple-doubles from power forwards in Draymond, in small forwards in myself, centers in Pau Gasol and things of that nature, it shows the versatility of our league,” James told reporters. “It’s pretty cool. I wouldn’t pick another sport, in another time, to be in the NBA.”
With his 13 triple-doubles in the regular season, Green passed Tom Gola (nine in 1959-60) for most by a Warrior. The 13 are also the most by a non-guard in a single-season since Grant Hill recorded 13 in 1996-97.
Green added a tripledouble in Game 1 of the West semifinal series against Portland.
“We have so many great shooters on this team, the numbers can sometimes pile up,” Green said. “We’re always looking for each other, so getting assists is just who we are as a team. The rebounds, yeah I’m going to battle for them.”
‘It’s a mentality’
West said he marvels how the 6-9 Green will sometimes wedge himself between two 7-footers and not only grab the rebound but also score on the putback.
“It’s a mentality,” West said.
There were 78 tripledoubles in the NBA in the regular season — the second-most behind the 198889 season. West thinks a big part of that is the increased reliance on the three-point shot.
“There are more easy assists and longer rebounds,” he said. “And that rewards the players with the higher activity level, the junkyard dogs. The more active players get rewarded, especially if they think, and Draymond and Russell are gifted, instinctive junkyard dogs.”
West pauses to chuckle. The Warriors had no idea what they were getting when they drafted Green in the second round in 2012.
“It’s ironic,” West said. “He had a roly-poly body. But after his rookie year, he took a hard look at himself and said, “I can be better than this.’ It’s a great tribute to his work ethic what he’s become.”