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Russell Westbrook is now officially averaging a triple-double

Dan Devine
Senior NBA writer

Russell Westbrook entered Monday night’s meeting with the New York Knicks needing to pull down 11 rebounds to reach a totally arbitrary yet completely amazing statistical benchmark: averaging a triple-double for the season. He barely needed a half to get there.

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The Oklahoma City Thunder superstar, who had already posted seven triple-doubles through the first 18 games of the 2016-17 campaign, came into Madison Square Garden averaging 31.2 points, 9.9 rebounds and 11.1 assists per contest. He sat just one piddlin’ rebound shy of joining Oscar Robertson in the ultra-rarefied air of averaging a triple-double — albeit through just 18 games rather than over the full 82-game slate, as “The Big O” did during the 1961-62 season — and he wasted precious little time putting on a show at the World’s Most Famous Arena, scoring or directly assisting on 16 of the Thunder’s first 18 points in the opening frame.

That wasn’t enough to keep the Knicks from opening up a double-digit lead before Westbrook sat for the final two minutes of the first quarter, however. Upon re-entering the game early in the second quarter, though, Westbrook seized control of the proceedings. He sliced through New York’s defense in the pick-and-roll, fed teammates Enes Kanter, Steven Adams and Victor Oladipo for easy buckets around the rim, and determinedly cleaned the glass, sparking a 27-14 quarter-closing kick that put OKC up by three at intermission.

Westbrook headed into the visiting locker room with 14 points on 5-for-9 shooting, 10 rebounds and nine assists in just under 19 minutes of work. He picked up his 11th rebound of the game — the one that officially put him in Oscar’s company — by pulling down an errant Kristaps Porzingis jumper just 50 seconds into the third quarter.

Then, just for good measure, he grabbed his 12th board, off a Derrick Rose miss, before rifling a pass through traffic to set Oladipo up for a breakout dunk that put OKC up by nine and gave Russ 10 assists for the game — his third straight game with a triple-double, his league-leading eighth of the season, and the 45th of his career, once again tying him with LeBron James for sixth on the NBA’s all-time list.

It took him 20 minutes. That’s the level Russell Westbrook’s on right now.

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Russell Westbrook barely needed a half against the Knicks to reach absurdly rarefied air. (Getty Images)
Russell Westbrook barely needed a half against the Knicks to reach absurdly rarefied air. (Getty Images)

The Knicks continued to battle, but never regained the lead after OKC’s late-second-quarter surge. Westbrook rampaged his way to 27 points, a game-high 18 rebounds, 14 assists and two steals in 36 minutes, leading the way to a 112-103 win that improved the Thunder to 11-8 on the season and snapped the Knicks’ six-game home winning streak. Westbrook is now averaging 30.9 points, 10.4 rebounds and 11.3 assists per game this season. This is the new normal, and it is insane.

Westbrook kept New York’s defense on its heels in the fourth quarter, repeatedly generating good looks for himself, setting up his teammates for high-percentage shots, or giving his big men the chance to attack the offensive glass. They did so with relish, as Kanter (27 points on 10-for-14 shooting and 10 rebounds, six of them offensive, in 28 minutes) and Adams (14 points on 7-for-11 shooting, 10 rebounds, four of them offensive, in 32 minutes) bulled their way through the Knicks’ frontcourt to the front of the rim time and again, leading to a 28-18 edge in second-chance points that proved to be a major factor in Oklahoma City’s nine-point win.

The possibility of Russ going through a full season averaging a triple-double isn’t a frequent topic of conversation in the Thunder locker room, according to Fred Katz of the Norman Transcript:

“I really mean this,” [Thunder head coach Billy] Donovan prefaced. “Outside of you guys talking about it, no one really talks about it. Whether it’s preparation for the next game or where we gotta get better or what happened that we need to improve in or what tweaks we need to make offensively, we’re kinda focused on those things. And I get the numbers that Russell’s putting up, and they’re record-setting, and they’re amazing.”

Once Donovan does start talking about it, though, he’s as jazzed up as the rest of us:

“Yeah, he could do it. He could do it,” Donovan said. “I’m not gonna say he is or isn’t because I think the more important thing is Russell is winning, but he’s a guy that has great impact on generating assists. He has a great impact on rebounding the basketball, and he can score. So, there’s certainly a possibility that can happen. Obviously what he’s done this point in time has been pretty remarkable.”

And — for now, at least — officially historic.

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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!

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