Russell Westbrook leads Wizards past Pacers with historic, wild triple-double
Westbrook #Westbrook
Russell Westbrook hasn’t been with the Washington Wizards long.
Just 38 games, in fact.
Yet on Monday night, Westbrook became the franchise’s all-time leader in triple-doubles.
Westbrook put up 35 points, a season-high 21 assists and 14 rebounds in Washington’s 132-124 win against the Indiana Pacers at Capital One Arena — which marked his 16th of the season.
Darrell Walker held the organization’s last record with 15 triple-doubles, something he did over 283 games between 1987-91.
Westbrook, the NBA said, is now the first player in history to drop a 35-point, 20-assist triple-double. He did all of that while Bradley Beal sat out due to a hip contusion.
“I’ve been saying it, there’s no other way to say it — there’s six letters, and it spells out winner,” Wizards coach Scott Brooks said of Westbrook, via the Washington Post. “That’s what he is. He’s won everywhere. We’re not winning as many games as we want, but he still fights and still leads and still plays hard. He’s not perfect. Turns the ball over too many times, at times. But he competes. . . . He does things that I’ve never seen in the history of — I’ve been in this league 30 years. He’s a winner, man. He fights.”
Westbrook is currently second on the NBA’s all-time triple-double list, trailing only Oscar Robertson by 19. LeBron James is the second highest active player on that list, though only has 99 to his name.
It wasn’t until the final minutes on Sunday night that Washington took off.
The Wizards, after a tight battle throughout nearly all of the contest, mounted a 13-0 run late in the fourth quarter to surge ahead. They finished the game outscoring Indiana 22-8 over a nearly six minute span, too, to secure the nine-point win — their second straight after a 14-point win against the Detroit Pistons on Saturday.
Domantas Sabonis led Indiana with 35 points and 11 rebounds, and Malcolm Brogdon added 26 points. Rui Hachimura finished with 26 points and eight rebounds for the Wizards, and Chandler Hutchison — who made his debut in Washington after being traded from Chicago last week — added 18 points off the bench while missing just two shots from the field.
“[The] mindset was to go out and be aggressive and make sure I set the table for my teammates like I’ve been doing all year long and make sure they have confidence going into the fourth,” Westbrook said after the game. “When the fourth hits, it’s time to take over.”
More from Yahoo Sports: