Triple-Double Watch Week 2: Boogie, LeBron, Harden, and Lowry join the club
Welcome to Triple-Double Watch, a weekly check-in on everyone’s favorite milestone of arbitrary round numbers.
Week two of the season came and went with some unexpected happenings: Memphis sits atop the West (sorry for ever doubting you); Golden State already has three(!) losses; Cleveland can’t seem to get it in gear; while Detroit and Orlando are the darlings of the young season, tied with Boston for first place in the East.
The Triple-Double Club — the coolest club in the NBA, if not the world — admitted four new members this past week and the Base-Ten God, Russell Westbrook put two more on his tab.
Most Impressive Triple-Double of Week 2: DeMarcus Cousins against the Cavaliers. When E’Twaun Moore and Dante Cunningham play over 30 minutes for your team, reaching double-digit assists is a borderline-incredible accomplishment. Also, I support all of Boogie Cousins’ endeavors.
Least Impressive Triple-Double of Week 2: Kyle Lowry versus the Lakers. Lowry barely broke the plane to be honored in this prestigious space. He needed 36 minutes to score 11 points…against the Lakers. Mark me as tepidly dazzled by the performance.
Without backcourt mate Chris Paul for the time being, James Harden has the keys to the Mike D’Antoni offense all to himself. In the seven games since Paul’s been sidelined, Harden’s averaged 25.9 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 9 assists.
As the Cavaliers sputter along, LeBron James is the only player so far in 2017-18 to hit the benchmark and take an L.
Here’s your season-long leaderboard:
Of course, Russell Westbrook showed us once again this is his triple-double world and we’re just living in it. The T-D king added two more to his 2017-18 total. He’s now at 82 for his career and at this pace, would pass Jason Kidd for third all-time at some point this season.
The Thunder are 3-3 and all of Oklahoma City’s wins coincide with Westbrook attaining the statistical feat. Not saying that’s why they win, just connecting the dots here. You can draw your own conclusions.
On the season, Westbrook is averaging 20.8 points and 12.2 assists, and is only 0.2 rebounds per game from baselining a triple-double. If he ends up doing that for the second year in a row, how long until “Westbrooked” becomes the ubiquitous verb for getting a triple-double? I’ll start the movement if nobody else does.
Next: 25-under-25 -- The best young players in the NBA
And we close up with Ron Baker Corner. Did Baker get a triple-double this week? Still no. The wait continues. His best line of the past seven days (by default) was 2 points and 2 assists in 10 minutes of action against the Celtics in a loss. Baker seems to have fallen out of favor in New York’s guard rotation, receiving DNP’s over the last three games, which all happened to be wins for the Knicks. Is it concomitance the Knicks started winning as soon as they benched Baker? How dare you suggest that. Have a heart.
Keep on keeping on, Ronnie Bakes. Triple-Double Watch awaits you.