Thunder head
Westbrook leads the Thunder into the last game of the regular season tonight with high hopes.
Carmelo Anthony’s response about Russell Westbrook bounced back as quickly as the question arrived.
Following a round of queries about Westbrook’s rebounding — the hot topic since the reigning Most Valuable Player needs 16 in the Thunder’s final regularseason game Wednesday to secure a triple-double average for the second consecutive season — Anthony perked up. He was asked about the perception of Westbrook as selfish.
“Is he?,” Anthony asked back quickly.
“He’s averaging a triple-double so it’s hard to say somebody’s selfish when they average a triple-double.”
With those 16 rebounds, Westbrook can be the first player to average a triple-double in back-to-back seasons, which is why the points-rebounds-assists feat
is back in the national vocabulary as the regular season closes. But what does Westbrook achieving the feat mean a season after pulling it off for the first time in 55 years?
Rather than a toppling of Oscar Robertson or clinging to a redemptive thread following Kevin Durant’s departure, this season’s Thunder conversation has centered on a disappointing 47-34 record relative to expectations.
Westbrook isn’t close to the MVP conversation, with the award James Harden’s to lose as the Rockets have dominated the league.
What Westbrook is doing alongside Anthony and Paul George is no less incredible, but feels that way.
It’s the gift and the curse, then, for Westbrook. With 85 tripledoubles in a three-season span, he’s desensitized a basketball community to a feat lauded for half a century.
“I think it speaks to what kind of fingerprints he has on games in a lot of different aspects,” Thunder coach Billy Donovan said when asked what back-to-back tripledouble averages would mean. “It doesn’t make a difference who’s playing with him, whether it’s him passing the ball and creating and generating assists, or his ability to rebound, those two things are always going to be constants because of his game.”
Westbrook has the double-digit points and assists average wrapped up. He needed 12 assists going into his final two games against Miami and Memphis and had 13 Monday night in the Thunder’s runaway win against the Heat.
He needed 34 rebounds entering those two games as well, a lofty goal for any frontcourt player, yet alone a 6-foot-3 guard. But why did anyone doubt if Westbrook could pull it off?
Or if his teammates are bothered if he goes for it. NBA players are fully aware of history, when milestones are approaching, but they don’t allow it to supersede winning.
“Sometimes you want to fight him a little bit, push him out of the way,” said a smiling Anthony, now notorious for his expletive-laden defensive rebounds. “For me, it’s good because to have a guard like that to be able to crack back and get rebounds.
“Anytime you can have a guard like that to come back and rebound the way he does, because we want to push the (fast) break … when he gets the rebound he’s able to jump start the break and a lot of good things happen from that.”
Make no mistake, the Thunder played a role in the devaluation of the triple-double as well.
Like last season, teammates allow for Westbrook to fly in for defensive rebounds, partially to ignite their fast-break offense (15 points per game on the break, fourth in the NBA). It was on full display in Monday’s 18-rebound performance. Westbrook elevated in the American-Airlines Arena. Arms around him shrank back to their bodies or didn’t extend at all. He pulled down 42.9 percent of the Thunder’s defensive rebounds while on the court, his secondhighest rebound rate in a game all season.
Westbrook and the Thunder have tapped into a basketball code. Seldom do guards bother to follow Westbrook to the defensive glass. Not a body was put on him for any of his 15 defensive rebounds on Monday. Only two were contested.
That still doesn’t account for his rebounding ability and sheer will. Twice on Monday, Westbrook instinctually pounced and chased the ball down on missed shots which were going out of bounds. Teammates defer with frequency on the defensive glass, but then there’s offensive rebounding, where hesitation means missed second chances.
How many times has a lethargic Thunder been energized by Westbrook finishing a putback like a power forward this season? Westbrook is third in the NBA among qualified guards in offensive rebounding rate, pulling down 5.5 percent of the Thunder’s misses when in the game. Only San Antonio’s Dejounte Murray (6.8) and Philadelphia’s Ben Simmons (6.0) are better. Murray is 6-5. Simmons is 6-10.
And if (when?) he gets 16 rebounds against Memphis, it likely won't come at the expense of a victory.
The Thunder has won 80 percent of its games in which Westbrook has triple-doubled this season (20 of 25) — a higher percentage than the Cavaliers when LeBron James triple-doubles (14 of 18, 77.8 percent) or the 76ers when Ben Simmons does (nine of 12, 75 percent).
It’s why on the eve of another round of history, Anthony couldn't keep from laughing as he accused Westbrook of stealing rebounds.