The record crowds that flocked to the NBA’s Las Vegas Summer League were treated to lots more than the Victor Wembanyama Show. Our correspondent in the desert empties her notebookThe most common mistake people make post-Vegas is overreacting, whether positive or negative. Yes, the NBA’s Summer League provides a high-profile showcase for undrafted and G League players to show their mettle, so if they impress, it shouldn’t be discounted. And some rookies display their rough edges in their first NBA-branded outing in ways that might raise flags for concern. But, on the whole, sweeping generalizations from the past 11 days shouldn’t be made in either direction off a handful of games that in the long run don’t carry a whole...
The Oklahoma City Thunder guard has carried his team on his shoulders during a record-breaking season. But is such excellence sustainable?Russell Westbrook doesn’t breathe; he takes air hostage. While such lines have been in the past reserved for Hunter Pence signs or Chuck Norris jokes, Westbrook has displayed such sangfroid for Oklahoma City Thunder that he has become a serious contender for the NBA’s MVP award. He might also have become the most interesting man in basketball.Perhaps more appropriately, Westbrook takes the ball hostage, playing the game with the heat of a thousand suns. This fury has driven him to break the NBA record for triple-doubles in a season. But in the NBA, over-exertion of stars has become a significant...
Oscar Robertson’s records were once considered to be among sport’s unbreakable records. The Oklahoma City Thunder guard just changed thatFifty-five years ago when Oscar Robertson set his record for triple-doubles in a season while playing for the Cincinnati Royals, there was no special ceremony or blowout media coverage. The term “triple-double” did not exist at the time and didn’t enter the basketball lexicon until years later, its mainstream emergence aided in 1992 by a Los Angeles-based rapper who happened to notch one on the playground one good and sunny day. Not only was there not intense coverage of the statistical mark in 1962, Robertson didn’t even know he had achieved anything remarkable or historic at the time. “Not at all,”...
Oklahoma City Thunder guard gets his 41st triple-double of the season Crowd chants ‘MVP’ as Westbrook stars against Milwaukee Bucks Russell Westbrook matched Oscar Robertson’s single-season record with his 41st triple-double and helped the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Milwaukee Bucks 110-79 on Tuesday night.Westbrook clinched his seventh straight triple-double on an assist to Taj Gibson with 9:17 left in the third quarter. The crowd stood and chanted “MVP! MVP!” long after the assist. He later waved to the crowd after play stopped . He finished with 12 points, 13 rebounds and 13 assists. Westbrook already has enough points and rebounds to guarantee a double-double for the season. Related: Was Steph Curry's transformation into an NBA supervillain inevitable? The moment....
The NBA has no shortage of worthy MVP candidates, but the San Antonio Spurs star might have established himself as the frontrunnerFor most of the season, Kawhi Leonard was having one of the quietest MVP campaigns in recent memory. That changed on Monday night when Leonard scored 39 points as the San Antonio Spurs fought back from a 16-point deficit to beat the Houston Rockets. In the game’s final 30 seconds, he single-handedly secured the 112-110 win with a soon-to-be legendary sequence where he put the Spurs ahead with a three-pointer and then raced to the other end of the floor to block James Harden’s potential game-tying lay-up. The win helped the second-placed Spurs keep pace with the Golden State...