Men like, women lie, Westbrook’s stats don’t
In the past, Russell Westbrook has received flack for taking unnecessary shots and not deferring to Kevin Durant. Although Durant has been the best scorer on the team, Westbrook has clearly emerged as the best talent on the squad this year – and maybe the entire NBA. Even after missing multiple games due to various injuries and his partner-in-crime KD missing more than half the season due to a broken foot, Russell helped sneak OKC into playoff contention in a very tough Western Conference.
While their 34-27 record may not reflect the team’s season this year, they’ve won 8 of their last 10 games, to have the best stretch of play among all teams currently in the league.
This is largely in help due to Westbrook’s impressive play of netting four consecutive triple-double games, which is the first time we’ve seen a player accomplish this since Michael Jordan in 1989, who went on a seven game streak.
Since their 2012 NBA Finals appearance, the team has gone two years without seeing the promise land. This season, the team has heavily upgraded their roster, with the additions of Enes Kanter, Dion Waiters, D.J. Augustin and Kyle Singler. Unfortunately, Oklahoma City is yet to play single game with their entire roster, but Westbrook’s contributions every night being the alpha male of the league (with Kobe Bryant nearing the end of his hall-of-fame career), has helped his team have confidence for next month’s playoffs.
Wednesday night, Westbrook attributed to 49 points, 16 rebounds, 10 assists, three steals and one block for 42 minutes of play in their overtime route of the Philadelphia 76ers.
Now in the 7th year of his NBA career, Westbrook currently leads the league in points-per-game, at 27 even and is ranked fourth among all players in assist with 8 a game. After winning the 2015 NBA All-Star Game MVP Award a few weeks ago, Westbrook is looking to complete his career year with a Larry O’Brien trophy in June with a very scary Thunder team that can make a run in the playoffs.
Whether or not that happens remains to be seen, but we cannot go against the numbers Westbrook is putting on the boards every night. He’s a machine out on the court.
Do you think Westbrook deserves the NBA MVP so far?
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