Oklahoma City star Russell Westbrook broke Oscar Robertson’s 55-year-old record with his 42nd triple-double of the NBA season — then broke the Denver Nuggets with a buzzer-beating three-pointer in a 106-105 Thunder triumph.
Westbrook finished the day with 50 points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists.
It was yet another remarkable display of the all-around excellence that a triple-double — the achievement of double-digit totals in three of five key statistical categories — has come to represent.
He delivered his 10th assist of the game with 4:17 remaining in the fourth quarter.
Westbrook had amassed 32 points, 13 rebounds and nine assists through three quarters.
Denver fans, eager to see history made, cheered every time he passed the ball to a teammate with a possible 10th assist on the cards, standing with cellphone cameras at the ready.
They thought they could afford to fete Westbrook, with the Nuggets comfortably ahead in a game they had to win to keep their slim playoff hopes alive.
But with the record achieved — his 10th assist leading to a Simaj Christon three-pointer that left the Thunder down by 10 — Westbrook went into scoring mode.
He scored the Thunder’s final 13 points, including his game-winner at the death after a timeout was called with 2.9 seconds remaining.
This was Westbrook’s third 50-plus-point triple-double of the season and his eighth with at least 40 points.
He had already joined Robertson as the only players in NBA history to average a triple-double over the course of a season.
Westbrook now has 79 triple-doubles in his career, and moved one past Wilt Chamberlain for fourth place on the all-time list.
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