National Basketball Association

Russell Westbrook notches historic triple-double in overtime game

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

share

facebookxredditlink

foxsports

It took overtime and 44 shots to get Russell Westbrook his monster triple-double and a win against the Phoenix Suns, but it was still a historic night for the Oklahoma City Thunder guard.

Only Russell Westbrook can take 44 shots, shoot under 40 percent from the floor and still have an MVP-caliber game.

Friday night in Chesapeake Energy Arena, it took overtime for the Oklahoma City Thunder to emerge with a 113-110 victory in their home opener against the lowly Phoenix Suns. The win moved the Thunder to 2-0 on the season, with both their narrow victories coming against two of the worst teams in the league.

After losing Kevin Durant this summer in free agency, there’s no question Oklahoma City got worse as a team. But the silver lining in all of this was going to be watching Westbrook be fully unleashed with extra motivation for exacting vengeance upon the entire league.

When Russ notched 32 points, 12 rebounds and nine assists in OKC’s season opener against the Philadelphia 76ers, the summer whispers about Westbrook joining Oscar Robertson as the only players in NBA history to average a triple-double for the entire season didn’t seem so unreasonable.

More on FanSided:

After watching Westbrook do it again Friday night, this time with 51 points, 13 rebounds, 10 assists and two steals, those whispers are only going to grow louder…even if it did take him 44 shots to get there.

Luckily, one of those 44 shots was a made layup to give his team a 111-110 lead in the game’s waning minutes — a lead they kept the rest of the way.

Westbrook only shot 17-for-44 from the field, including 2-for-10 from the three-point range with five turnovers, but he also played a team-high 45 minutes, went 15-for-20 from the foul line and finished with a plus/minus of -7. That may not seem like much, until you consider the rest of OKC’s starting lineup was all negative.

With his 51-13-10 triple-double, Westbrook became the first player since 1974 to post a triple-double of at least 50 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists:

According to ESPN Stats & Info, he’s also tied for the third-most points scored in a triple-double.

Westbrook is a polarizing figure. His bravado rubs some people the wrong way, he sometimes shoots too much when he tries to take over games, he’s a poor three-point shooter and he was never able to bring a title to Oklahoma City while playing alongside Kevin Durant.

But if games like this prove anything, it’s that letting Westbrook be Westbrook at least makes for phenomenal television.

More from FanSided

This article originally appeared on

share

Get more from National Basketball Association Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more

in this topic

National Basketball Association