After recording 3 straight triple-doubles (including 2 this week), what else was there for Russell Westbrook to do?
Apparently, try and win the Western Conference Player of the Week award was all that was left after tonight.
The 16-29 Dallas Mavericks haven’t had much luck this season, starting off 3-15, losing to the Cavaliers by 38 in November and now getting absolutely dismantled by Russell Westbrook in a 45 point performance.
In 35 minutes, Russell Westbrook managed to take 29 field goal attempts, making 55% of them. Westbrook stayed aggressive as well, shooting 9-11 from the free throw line. As if those big numbers weren’t enough, Westbrook also ended the game with a +18 plus/minus.
Although Westbrook didn’t aim for a triple-double this game, he still ended the game with 8 rebounds and 2 steals, but more importantly, he also added another W in the win column for OKC.
The Oklahoma City Thunder came out on top against Dallas with a 109-98 victory.
For the Mavericks, they had no intentions to stop Harrison Barnes from shooting the basketball in his 38 minutes of play. Barnes shot 50% in a big 31 point effort that didn’t receive much scoring help from the other 9 players in rotation.
Justin Anderson (17 points) was the only other Maverick, not named Harrison Barnes, that scored 11+ points. In total, Barnes and Anderson accounted for nearly 50% of Dallas’s points (49%).
Not only did the Mavericks not get much done on the scoring end, but they had no solution for Russell Westbrook’s clutch antics in the fourth quarter.
Westbrook ended the Thunder’s 28th win of the season (3rd in a row) by dropping 17 of the team’s 22 points in the fourth quarter.
After a huge fourth quarter and overall game by Westbrook, the Thunder will end the month of January with some tough games against 2 of the top 4 teams in the NBA.
Oklahoma City will visit the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday and the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday to see if they can steal the 5th or 4th seed in the West this week.
The Dallas Mavericks will do the same in opposite fashion, by going to San Antonio on Sunday and playing the Cavaliers on Monday at home. These games will show us how legit the Mavericks are after going 6-6 in January so far, and being only 4 games behind from the 8th seed out West right now.
