Russell Westbrook Triple-Double Watch: Game 63, with the Big O's blessing

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 31.4 points, 10.6 rebounds and 10.1 assists 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.

At this point it is fair to conclude that we’re looking at Russell Westbrook, fully formed. After a near-season of telling anyone who would listen that we’d probably never see anything along Westbrook’s lines, he’s come to remind us to take it in now as we can. A prime Westbrook and his fitful team may never look like this again, the setting may never reveal itself in such a way to leads to this sort of end times-style of performance, and the onus is on us to properly document what has and will continue to be a season for the ages.

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Westbrook is coming off of perhaps his most eye-popping stretch of the season, and for whatever reason the Thunder are coming off of two consecutive losses heading into Sunday night’s contest in Dallas. Russell took over the run of action late in his team’s win over Utah on Tuesday, scoring 45 along the way, before knotting 45 and 48 points in losses against the Trail Blazers and Suns. He’s averaged 44.2 points, nearly 12 rebounds, 8.5 assists and a whopping 6.7 turnovers a contest over his last four games, shooting 41.7 percent and taking an average of 31.7 shots a game.

As is his custom, these are not typical performances, and it has left those of us just catching up to the idea that we have to do this even in March trying to figure out why a guy dropping 44 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists, even with those six turnovers, can’t lead his group to more certain victories.

With the Thunder sitting at 35-27, No. 7 in the West but still in the fight for the No. 4 seed and home court advantage, it feels appropriate to have a little laugh at Charles Barkley’s expense:

That’s from Thursday evening, after the Thunder lost in Portland; a defeat mostly due to Westbrook receiving precious little help (while failing to notch his 31st triple double of the year) from his growing cast of teammates.

However, the Oklahoma City Thunder (as you’ve no doubt been told) have won 80 percent of its games during days and nights in which Westbrook achieves the double-digit triptych, and Westbrook is perhaps the NBA’s best clutch performer. Charles Barkley, you’ll recall, has never let the outcome of actual basketball games get in the way of his analysis before.

The NBA has now tied a record for triple-doubles in the season (mind you, this is the league that used to average 20 to 30-odd more possessions per contest over half a century ago), and we’re only in the first week of March. Oscar Robertson has been repeatedly asked about his role in the entire worm toward what could end up as 2016-17’s signature number(s), so one could expect the 78-year old legend from acting a little cross or annoyed as he continues to answer queries about Mr. Westbrook.

Instead, the Big O came off as the cuddly sort yet again, in a feature placed within NBA TV’s fantastic ‘The Art of the Triple-Double’ series. It’s been a good year for the Hall of Famer, in that realm, and we’re generally glad about it:

Oscar Robertson is aware of his own greatness, he’s hardly the type insecure enough to covet this sort of attention as a way back toward amplifying his own significant accomplishments – accomplishments we would be well served to visit and re-visit dozens of time over in the wake of what remains a still-stunning career. Robertson’s not standing on the shoulders of a 28-year old, though, when he relays that he hopes Russell Westbrook could match his mark from 1962.

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Russell Westbrook, unless something terrible happens, is probably going to average a triple-double in 2016-17. If he manages 24.7 points per game with 9.6 assists and 7.8 rebounds over his last 20 contests, he’ll maintain his triple-double averages with 30 points per game, and still not have to rely on a batch of up-rounding in order hit the mark.

What’s just as certain, barring some unexpected shifts, is Oklahoma City’s rotation moving forward.

The trade deadline brought the gifts of Taj Gibson (8.6 points, 4.4 rebounds and a block in 23 minutes a contest) and Doug McDermott (8.2 points but 26 percent long range shooting, and the ideal of “he’ll draw the defenders even while missing shots” hasn’t produced much in terms of tangible results yet), and the return of Enes Kanter means that this is about the best that we’ll see of the Thunder moving forward in 2016-17.

Chemistry advancements, at this time of the season (Sunday marks the team’s fifth game in seven nights, with three games coming on the road), have to happen by accident. The perpetually dynamic (if not exactly evolving) Oklahoma City roster situation has revealed itself in its current form: Russell Westbrook, piling up 123 shots in four games, two of them losses.

The new additions better know that Russell, in times of toil and trouble, likes to go left. Chris Herring at Five Thirty Eight stalked Westbrook down recently to inform him of his favorite habit:

It’s understandable that Russell Westbrook wouldn’t want to know. That he wants to remain the blissfully unaware batter at the plate, looking askance as the teammate on second base furiously tries to relay the fact that the deuce is coming. Plans, and 55 years’ worth of history, go out the window when Westbrook drives left.

His Oklahoma City Thunder, as a result, has defined itself in his image. We’ll see how that works out.

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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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