Russell Westbrook Triple-Double Watch: Game 24, vs. the Boston Celtics

Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook is threatening to become the first NBA player to average a triple-double since Cincinnati Royals Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson achieved the double-figure points, assists and rebounds mark during the 1961-62 NBA season. A lot has changed in the league since then, which is why Westbrook’s current averages of 30.9 points, 11.3 assists and 10.8 rebounds would make such a feat a remarkable achievement in line with some of the greatest individual seasons in NBA history. If not the greatest individual season in NBA history.

As Westbrook takes on each new opponent while the OKC season drawls on, we’ll be updating his chances at matching the Big O’s feat.

The Thunder point guard hit his marks for the seventh straight game on Friday night, keeping his season-long pursuit of Oscar humming with 27 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists in 35 1/2 minutes of work. It was his 12th triple-double of the season — the rest of the league, thus far, has compiled 13 — and it tied Robertson and the 1988-89 version of Michael Jordan (to whom our Kelly Dwyer predicted Russ would compare back before the campaign got started) for the second-longest triple-double streak in league history.

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The gaudy numbers, though, couldn’t generate a seventh straight win, as OKC fell to the Houston Rockets, 102-99. Houston superstar James Harden nearly matched his old running buddy, putting up 21 points (albeit on unsightly 6-for-23 shooting), 12 assists (albeit against eight turnovers) and nine rebounds to help propel the Rockets to victory, but the deciding factor in the contest might have been the work of point guard Patrick Beverley.

The Rockets perimeter stopper — who, as you might recall, has something of a history with Russ — took the primary defensive assignment on the All-Star record-breaker and aced the test. He harassed Westbrook into 8-for-25 shooting with eight turnovers, and with Houston hanging on to a one-point lead with just under 18 seconds left, he went one-on-one with Russ … and locked him up:

… much to the delight, and eventual chagrin, of Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni:

Westbrook, naturally, refused to give Beverley the satisfaction of a tip of the cap after the game. (“I missed a lot of easy shots, man. Honestly, brother.”) He could be in for just as rough a slog on Sunday, though, when OKC squares off against a Boston Celtics squad that only ranks in the middle of the NBA’s pack in points allowed per possession, but boasts two “dogs” of its own — a pair of on-ball pitbulls named Avery Bradley and Marcus Smart.

Bradley has twice been named to the NBA’s All-Defensive squad, making the First Team last year and earning accolades as one the best perimeter defenders in the league from opponents and general managers alike. Smart hasn’t yet reached that level of consistency and reputation, but he’s proven a tenacious, tireless defender capable of battling opponents of all skills, shapes and sizes, from quick-footed point guards to rangy shooting guards to big men like Paul Millsap and Kristaps Porzingis.

Bradley and Smart teamed up to stifle Westbrook in the first meeting between Boston and Oklahoma City last season, a 100-85 Celtics win in which Russ scored a game-high 27 points but shot just 5-for-20 from the field and coughed up four turnovers to mitigate his five assists. Smart more than held his own on the other end, too, scoring a career-high 26 points and relishing the battle with Westbrook all over the court.

“That’s the type of guy that Russ is. He loves challenges and he’s gonna try to do his best every time, and vice versa with me,” Smart said. “You put two guys like that going against each other and, obviously, we’re going to knock heads.”

Westbrook, as you might expect, didn’t give the then-second-year pro much shine.

“He had a good game. There’s 82 games I do this,” Westbrook said. “Don’t get it twisted.”

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OK, OK, we won’t get it twisted. We will get a few things straight, though:

• Smart has held opposing shooters to a 42.6 percent mark from the field this year, 2.1 percentage points lower than their aggregate accuracy for the season, according to NBA.com’s SportVU player tracking data;

• Bradley’s allowed only 0.85 points per possession finished by ball-handlers in the pick-and-roll this season, and is holding those ball-handlers to 38.2 percent shooting on those plays, according to Synergy Sports Technology’s game-charting data;

• No Celtics opponent has posted a triple-double in the last 225 games, according to the Elias Sports Bureau;

• The Celtics have been closer to a top-10 unit in defensive efficiency than they have been to league-average since getting center Al Horford back from his concussion issues in late November.

At 13-10 and with All-Star scorer Isaiah Thomas out for the contest with a groin strain, Boston isn’t quite what many of us expected them to be heading into the season. But Westbrook won’t be facing pushovers on Sunday night.

That said: Westbrook has averaged 29 points, 6.6 assists, 4.7 rebounds and 3.7 steals in 33 minutes per game against Boston since Brad Stevens took over as head coach in 2013, and after being handcuffed last November, Russ did get Bradley, Smart and company back later in the 2015-16 season, putting up 24 points on 50 percent shooting, five rebounds, five assists and three steals with just two turnovers in 26 minutes of work as OKC annihilated the C’s in Boston, 130-109, on the night before St. Patrick’s Day. (Cold world.) And that was before the Kevin Durant trade fully unleashed him on the league as chaos incarnate and arguably the NBA’s most devastating offensive force.

“He’s an animal. Everybody in this league knows Russ is an animal,” Smart told ESPN. “[Westbrook] deserves the respect he gets. He earns it. With a guy like that, you just have to go out and play your best and hope to contain him.”

Few opponents this year have had the goods to do that. Behind Beverley on Friday, Houston did. With Bradley and Smart on Sunday, Boston just might, too.

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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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