On Wednesday night, Russell Westbrook had himself a ballgame. Playing their fellow second-tier contenders, the Los Angeles Clippers, Russ scored 25 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and dished 20 assists in the first 20-assist triple-double since Magic Johnson did it in 1988. Numbers don’t really capture his dominance, however, so here’s the highlight reel again:
It’s a good thing that we’re not so bogged down in numbers, because if we were, then video of Russ’s 12th assist would ruin the whole thing. You can clearly see that Steven Adams actually made the final pass to Kevin Durant here, even though Westbrook got the credit in the box score.
Hometown scoring is real, and it’s gone too far here. Obviously, the scorer didn’t pump Russ’ stats just to get him to 20, since the number was still far off at the time. Still, the error should get a second look from the NBA. The league doesn’t often correct scoring errors like this, but come on, it’s egregious. Still, it’s a good thing none of us get bogged down in things like round numbers or quibble over statistics. How boring our lives would be if we did.
For what it’s worth, ESPN’s box score only credits Russ for 19 dimes, so at least someone has some scruples.
(H/T FTW)
