Westbrook: 14 Points, 24 Assists, 21 Rebounds (13/17/17 vs the Raptors)

[vxmike]

Miami and lac should make the call this summer for Westbrook

GSW should consider it too.

[dlts20]

What a beast! Did he get 20 x 3 before?

Yes after nipsey hussle died so he did that in honor of the rolling 60s. 20x20x20

[WestbrookGOATed]

Can we stop posting these stat lines like they’re incredible? There was almost 300 points scored in this game lol. Sure the stat line is great but let’s put some context on it. Wiz had 50 team assists for crying out loud, 210 total shots between the 2 teams like my god the pace of this game was stupid.

Wizards had 50 team assists, and Russ had half of them.

[bamheat]

Everytime Westbrook posts a triple double there is a thread made about it like this one.

Pretty sure you guys love to shower him in credit...

[Snakebites]

The most impressive part of that stat line to me is that he only took 8 shots.

That's crazy restraint in a game like that.

[carlquincy]

What a beast! Did he get 20 x 3 before?

Yes after nipsey hussle died so he did that in honor of the rolling 60s. 20x20x20

Nice. Thanks for the info.

[RafStone]

Everytime Westbrook posts a triple double there is a thread made about it like this one.

Pretty sure you guys love to shower him in credit...

Yea I think the narrative, with guys like zach lowe dismissing him as some sort of ineffective gimmick that polarized side has brought about defenders or heightened them. There are also two different russ's. You see him the first month or two the last 3 seasons, mediocre or probably worse. Then he hits a gear and does some incredible things taht you rarely see in this league. Last year in the playoffs he was abysmal after coming off injury, point is russ at 75/80 percent with his inability or unwillingness to adjust is near useless and destructive, at 100 percent he is a historic talent.

[crows2]

With a better shot selection he'd be first team all NBA every year

This is very interesting discussion. What I mean is the all-nba discussion, for this year. I don't think he is first team, since in my opinion you want to reward winning. But we know he missed all-star game so does he have a chance to be on 3rd or 2nd team?

Guys who compete for all-nba honors this year on guard spots (did I miss someone?):
Doncic (58 games)
Lillard (59 games)
Curry (56)
Harden (42)
Irving (48)
Beal (55)
Booker (60)
Paul (63)
Mitchell (53)
Brown (58)
Young (56)

Westbrook (57)

Does missed games by Harden and Irving hurt them, does guys like Brown, Mitchell, Young, Paul get traction for such awards?

Can a guy averaging 22/11/11 on 44% shooting miss all-nba honors?

He won’t be 1st or 2nd team ahead of Curry, Doncic, Paul or Lillard, but 3rd team is realistic.

[Teko]

Everytime Westbrook posts a triple double there is a thread made about it like this one.

Pretty sure you guys love to shower him in credit...

Not really, any player put up 14/24/21 will get his own thread.

You only feel like this because only Russ put up these crazy numbers regularly.

[Teko]

If everyone could do it, they would do it.

Watch on YouTube

[JN61]

Incredible.

I keep waiting on Skiles' 30 assist record to be broken.

Wouldn't put it past Westbrook.

He had 18 by half. It was realistic but his teammates kept passing wide open shots or bricking easy <10 footers on second half. If I remember correctly his previous career high had similar massive amounts of assists on the first, barely any on the second. Ah well, those things happen. It would be interesting what stat aware player like Russ would do if he put his mind into passing for full season. As of now he pretty much gets on every game his 10-13 assists but he rarely goes past 15.

[God Squad]

As Raps fan I must say I'm very Happy Westy/Beal winning Washington some games. Keep it up

[BenoUdrihFTL]

That's an absurd statline. The "stat-padding" arguments only go so far when the Wiz are winning

[donnieme]

One thing people don't realise is you can't actually stat-pad rebounds unless you're already good at it. Has he had moments where he left his man to lurk? Yes, quite a bit, but he's still an all time great guard rebounder, both can be true

[FreeThrowLine]

Can everyone do it? No

The reason why I’m not as impressed by the numbers as one would expect when looking at such insane numbers comes down to the difference in effort between him and everyone else.

I absolutely give him credit for giving 100% all the time, but I also look at the competition not giving close to 100% and while that’s not Westbrook’s fault, it does skew my view of the stats

I also look at games like tonight, 154-141 in regular time

Sabonis with 32pts, 19 rebs & 9 assists
LeVert with 33, 7 & 5
McConnell with 15, 9 & 8

Seeing so many guys have big games makes me assume without having had the chance to watch the game that it was very high paced with very low effort on defense

[queridiculo]

I used to be a Westbrook hater, but since he joined the Wizards and I got a chance to watch him every night, he has made me a believer.

Yeah, I know he is inefficient with too many missed shots and turnovers, but his relentless energy is infectious. Also, his assists are legit. He's not just driving and kicking for contested jumpers, he feeds the big men for dunks time and time again. He has made Alex Len, Robin Lopez and Daniel Gafford all look like All-Stars.

I didn't buy into GB the Westbrook narrative and chatter, but I have to admit after how he started the season I was all in on the Westbrook haters club.

He just looked done, and to me the revelation that he gutted it out playing hurt for a good portion of the first half of the season whilst taking all that criticism heading his way without a peep or making excuses speaks to Westbrook's character.

He still makes the occasional head scratching passes and takes shots he probably shouldn't but he's just out there going after it with reckless abandon every night.

There's no quit in Westbrook, I am definitely a believer now.

First ballot hall-of-famer, and just an overall great human being with all the work he's doing off the court.

[queridiculo]

One thing people don't realise is you can't actually stat-pad rebounds unless you're already good at it. Has he had moments where he left his man to lurk? Yes, quite a bit, but he's still an all time great guard rebounder, both can be true

There's definitely 2-3 rebounds a game that basically anybody could have grabbed and bigs typically just let him go, but what gets lost is the amount of times he skies to grab rebounds in traffic that a guard probably has no business getting to, on both ends.

I am also not sure why people act as if it's a bad thing.

When he's in the open court running the break all eyes are on him because he's still such a terror to get to the basket and that typically leads to plenty of opportunities for bigs that fill the passing lanes.

What's the point of a big grabbing the rebound only to hand it off to Westbrook?

[Ontario]

Just a note about Russ starting seasons slow then heating up down the stretch. First off he does have a history of coming into each season a little dinged up, after his knee injury in the Pat Beverly incident it was common for Russ to have additional minor operations to clean out that knee in the summer, I have no idea if that kind of maintenance is still ongoing at the moment. Regardless Russ depends a lot his phenomenal athleticism, so when something mechanically isn’t right with him it’s going to have a bigger impact on his overall performance.

Secondly he just naturally has an off the scale level of competitiveness in him, and it is strictly a theory I cannot prove this but it makes sense that as the playoffs get closer and closer and the regular season games start taking on more and more importance that sort of added fuel will just bring out the best in him.

[Doranku]

FWIW, Russ' record in triple-doubles:

OKC: 110-28
HOU: 5-3
WAS: 19-13

Total: 134-44 (75% win rate)

[JN61]

Can everyone do it? No

The reason why I’m not as impressed by the numbers as one would expect when looking at such insane numbers comes down to the difference in effort between him and everyone else.

I absolutely give him credit for giving 100% all the time, but I also look at the competition not giving close to 100% and while that’s not Westbrook’s fault, it does skew my view of the stats

I also look at games like tonight, 154-141 in regular time

Sabonis with 32pts, 19 rebs & 9 assists
LeVert with 33, 7 & 5
McConnell with 15, 9 & 8

Seeing so many guys have big games makes me assume without having had the chance to watch the game that it was very high paced with very low effort on defense

In the nutshell Pacers played good defense (wouldn't know from numbers), but Westbrook picked them apart. Wizards on other hand can't play defense (way better as of late granted) so they pretty much always let their opponents score a lot. What is noteworthy they played on extremely high pace but that is to be expected from Wizards games.

They are the fastest paced offense in the league and apparently on the pace to play the fastest pace in the last 30 years? If that is not Russ effect I don't know what is. He turned last year's Houston 2nd fastest pace team while before his arrival that team was dead last. Westbrook getting rebound and him running has insane effect on teams he plays.

https://youtu.be/dqb4rDWpiTc
here are highlights video if you interested. If I remember right, Westbrook bricked 2 shots which he rebounded and scored after, I believe all but one turnover were results of overpassing, still 6 turnovers in 24 assists seems very acceptable. He basically picked Pacers apart, a lot of shots that he assisted on were very well contested as well but he delivered a lot of them to sweet spots of players. Not just easy 3 point wide open heaves that you pray go in. But constant barrage of inside, inside, inside passes.