Yes, Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook moved into a tie for third place in terms of most triple-doubles in a single season, but his backup had a pretty good night too.
Cameron Payne scored 15 points on 6-of-12 shooting and had two assists in 13 minutes off the bench. In his previous six games, he was 11-of-42 from the field.
Payne was on the court for only 5:40 in the first half, but was impactful. The Thunder outscored the Cleveland Cavaliers by 10 points in that span. They were outscored by 12 points in Westbrook’s time on the floor in the first half.
In the second half, Westbrook was more in control. He shot 3-of-12 in the first half, but 8-of-15 in the second half.
Of Westbrook’s 27 shot attempts in the game, 24 of them came when he had to create the shot on his own without a teammate’s assist opportunity. He was 8-of-15 on those shots in the second half compared with 1-of-9 in the first half.
The other key to the Thunder’s win was that they slowed the Cleveland Cavaliers down. The Cavaliers scored 20 points on 8-of-11 transition shooting in the first half, but only four points on 1-of-4 in transition in the last two quarters.
Moving up the list
Westbrook’s 26 triple-doubles are the most by a player in a season since Wilt Chamberlain had 31 in 1967-68. Chamberlain and Oscar Robertson (41) are the only ones ahead of Westbrook on the all-time list.
Elias Sports Bureau Notes of the Night
Westbrook became the first player to record multiple triple-doubles in a season against the defending champ since John Havlicek for the 1971-72 Celtics (against the defending champion Bucks).
This marked the seventh time that he’s had a triple-double in consecutive games against a team within the same season. The last two times he’s done this were against the Grizzlies and Cavaliers. In both instances, those were his first two triple-doubles against those teams.
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