Three players, including Bradley Beal, sat on the Washington Wizards’ bench in plainclothes Monday with injuries. Washington lost another when newly acquired center Daniel Gafford took a hard fall early in the fourth quarter and sprained his right ankle.
Westbrook finished with 35 points on 14-for-26 shooting — including 4 for 6 from three-point range — 21 assists and 14 rebounds. The triple-double, his 16th of the season, moved him past Darrell Walker for the most by any player to ever wear a Washington jersey.
Westbrook did it in just 38 games.
Beyond city limits, the point guard became just the third player in NBA history to author a 30-20-10 triple-double, joining Magic Johnson and Oscar Robertson in an ultraexclusive club. Westbrook is now 20 triple-doubles away from breaking Robertson’s career record of 181.
Westbrook laughed and shook his head when asked if he might reach the mark this season.
“I’m not sure, man,” he said. “I’m just trying to get to the playoffs. . . . If it comes, it comes. If it don’t, it don’t.”
Brooks, who is in his second stint with Westbrook after coaching him for the first seven years of his career with Oklahoma City, was more passionate about his performance.
“It’s tremendous. I’m going to put it on my Twitter account, my Instagram, my Snapchat, my TikTok — I’m going to put it all. Am I giving out my age there?” Brooks joked. “I mean, I don’t know, man. . . . It’s amazing what he does. People don’t realize, or they don’t want to realize, because he doesn’t kiss anybody’s a--. He just plays a hard brand of basketball, but he doesn’t do it looking for [reporters’] approval.
“What Russell does for us goes beyond the stat sheet, and he fills the stat sheet like nobody ever has done in the history of this game. He’s going to go down as one of the best point guards of all time.”
Westbrook’s feat helped the Wizards string together back-to-back wins for the first time in more than a month.
The point guard helped seal a tight game with 17 points in the fourth quarter, nudging Washington (17-28) across the finish line after Rui Hachimura and Chandler Hutchison supported him. Hachimura had 26 points and eight rebounds as he continued his streak of aggressive games of late, while Hutchison, who arrived at the trade deadline from Chicago, had 18 points and five rebounds in his Wizards debut — and his first game since Feb. 5.
“There was nothing other than me wanting to come out here and be myself on the court, be embraced by my teammates, and I was lucky enough to get an opportunity,” Hutchison said. “Russ had quite a bit of an assist to me, so I’ve got to get him some dinner or something.”
Asked what it was like as a 22-year-old who grew up watching Westbrook to see his performance firsthand, Hutchison simply shook his head.
“With Russ, he just commands an energy that’s extremely contagious,” he said.
At the start, the home team looked as though it would be in for a tall task.
Beal missed his fourth game this season after a hard fall in Saturday’s win against Detroit. He left that game early in the third quarter and remains day-to-day, according to Brooks, as the schedule plows ahead: Washington hosts the feisty Charlotte Hornets on Tuesday.
Brooks started Jerome Robinson in Beal’s place, opting to keep his only other option at shooting guard, Garrison Mathews, on the bench in hopes he could provide a spark for a second unit that has been sluggish lately. Mathews, who is on a two-way contract, has started 21 games this season.
Gafford went down with 10:03 left in the fourth quarter and was taken to the locker room in a wheelchair after adding 11 points and six rebounds off the bench in just his second game with Washington.
Domantas Sabonis led the Pacers (21-24) with 35 points, and Malcolm Brogdon added 26. But everyone paled in Westbrook’s shadow.
“You know, it’s pretty crazy, man, when you think about it,” Westbrook said when asked how much work he puts in to churn out triple-doubles regularly. “When you actually think about it, not let the negative energy seep in, the negative comments seep in. . . I just go out and play, man. That’s all I could tell you. I just do what I can and I just try to do different things to impact winning. . . .
“I put a . . . ton of pressure on myself, win, lose, to do every single thing on the floor — defend, rebound, pass, lead, assist — and I just feel like that’s my calling, and I’m going to make sure I do that every night.”
