I guess one game without a triple-double was just one too many for Russell Westbrook.
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After seeing his four-game streak of triple-doubles — the longest such run since Michael Jordan ripped off seven in a row in 1989 — snapped in the Oklahoma City Thunder's Thursday night loss to the Chicago Bulls, Westbrook got right back on track on Sunday night, leading OKC to a 108-104 win over the Toronto Raptors by scoring 30 points, dishing a season- and career-high-tying 17 assists and pulling down 11 rebounds to go with four steals and a block, logging his seventh triple-double of the season, and his fifth in the last sixth games, in 40 minutes of work. (Actually, it was a bit faster than that — he had 26, 15 and 10 by the end of the third quarter, having logged 31 minutes, 54 seconds of floor time.)
It wasn't all peaches and cream on Sunday — OKC trailed by as many as seven in the second quarter as a Toronto side playing its second game since All-Star point guard Kyle Lowry back in the lineup scored 61 first-half point on the Thunder D, and the rampaging Russ did tie a career high with nine turnovers. On balance, though, Westbrook was once again brilliant, routinely getting to the rim for either finishes (5-for-7 inside the restricted area on Sunday) or fouls (11-for-13 at the free-throw line, including 7-for-8 in the second half) while also continuing to make sure his bigs eat well.
Serge Ibaka (21 points, seven rebounds, five blocks), Enes Kanter (21 points, 12 rebounds, four assists) and the returning Steven Adams (six points, six rebounds, two blocks) were monstrous on Sunday, and 16 of their 22 combined made field goals came off direct assists by Westbrook. (And, if you want to get technical about it, he had a hand in two more by Kanter, whose first bucket was initiated by a Westbrook post entry pass and whose second came after rebounding a layup that Westbrook missed after pushing the pace in transition.)
Westbrook now leads the NBA in both scoring, pouring in 27.4 points per game, and assist percentage, notching the direct helper on 48.5 percent of his teammates' baskets during his time on the floor. He's separating himself from his fellow All-Star-caliber point men:
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... and keeping himself in the company of all-time greats:
He's now averaging a triple-double — 34.5 points, 11.3 assists, 10.4 rebounds — in Thunder games without injured running buddy Kevin Durant since the beginning of February, carrying OKC to a 12-9 record without the reigning MVP and putting the Thunder, who now sit at 35-28 on the season, in position to be one of the most dangerous No. 8 seeds in recent postseason memory.
Oh, and he's doing it with a surgically repaired face. He's precisely the sort of superhero the Thunder need right now, the kind of world-changer who inspires fans to keep their oversized novelty headmasks up to date (as captured by the great @_MarcusD_):
And the way he's doing it — the balance of breakneck bull-rushes to the basket and measured table-setting, the evident understanding of when to get his teammates off and when to go for self, the clear confidence in his capacity to lead — has made him the single most electric performer in the league, which is saying something, because Stephen Curry continues to do stuff like this.
But there's something more physically visceral about watching Westbrook work than seeing Curry cook; if Steph is magic, Russ is an irresistible advancing army. Right now, Westbrook with the ball — on the break, at the top of the key waiting for a screen, wherever — isn't an arrow pointed at the rim. He's a 300-esque eclipse of arrows whose path to the intended target is inevitable, because you can't possibly repel an onslaught that overwhelming.
"If you can find somebody who has slowed him down, let me know," Raptors guard DeMar DeRozan, who finished with a Toronto-high 24 points and nine assists, said after Sunday's game, according to Cliff Brunt of The Associated Press.
(DeRozan's comment echoes the thoughts of Jason Gay of the Wall Street Journal: "[...] in the flow of an NBA game, Westbrook can resemble upgraded software, moving at twice the speed of the rest of the game.")
Back at the start of the season, with the Thunder heading into battle with Durant sidelined following foot surgery, we wondered just what a version of Westbrook utterly unfettered and unleashed, tasked with carrying the Oklahoma City offense and leading the Thunder through the choppy waters of the Western Conference playoff chase, might look like. Well, now we now — it's must-watch television, a breathtakingly brutal ballet that has very few, if any, spot-on antecedents. Russell Westbrook's giving us something new every night, elbowing his way into the lead pack of the MVP race as he keeps the Thunder in the playoff picture. For many of us, this is a dream realized. For Oklahoma City's opponents, though, it's an absolute nightmare.
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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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