Russell Westbrook gets triple-double on Victor Oladipo’s 360 layup

Russell Westbrook got his 26th triple-double Thursday night on a 360 spin layup from Victor Oladipo.

Russell Westbrook is on constant triple-double watch this season. He has the chance to be the first player to average a triple-double since Oscar Robertson did it so long ago, and tonight he had another chance to get one.

In a nationally televised appearance against the Cleveland Cavaliers Thursday night, Westbrook put on a show with 29 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists. That was good enough for his 26th triple-double of the season, but the real highlight here wasn’t his total, but how he got his 10th assist of the game.

Westbrook has said time and time again that he doesn’t pay attention to his stats and he just plays the game every night. While I’m sure most of the time he’s telling the truth, that wasn’t the case as this one was coming to a close. The Oklahoma City Thunder had a pretty commanding lead late, and Westbrook knew he needed one last assist to get that much wanted triple-double. So he cherry picked.

Is there anything wrong with Westbrook cherry-picking his 10th assist? No, not really, but it hurts the spirit of the accolade which is his ability to do everything on a basketball court at once. Also, it robbed us one of those incredible dunk highlights we all love so much.

Luckily, Victor Oladipo was there to finish it off for us with a fancy spin before dropping in an easy layup. Ten assists for Westbrook, and another triple-double in the book.

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What’s really fun to think about with this play is if Oladipo had gone for the dunk. He has the ability to throw down a 360 in game. He did it multiple times when he played for the Orlando Magic, and it would have been a great highlight had he capped off the play with one. He probably didn’t want to risk the chance of ruining Westbrook’s assist, but it robbed everybody of an awesome dunk in the process.