Oklahoma City’s final game of the season had a lot of meaning to it. The Thunder had to win to even stand a chance of making the playoffs. Well, they won the game by a lot. They put on an offensive show as they beat the Timberwolves 138-113. One player who played great was their lone superstar, Russell Westbrook.
Westbrook had his fair share of high scoring, jaw dropping games this season, but with the playoffs and the NBA scoring title on the line, Russell Westbrook put up more big numbers. At the end of the 1st quarter, Westbrook had already scored 23 points, and his team had a whopping 47 points. This is the most that he has scored in a single quarter in his career. By halftime, he already had 34 points on 11-15 shooting.
His injured teammate Kevin Durant, who happens to be the reigning scoring champ, was quite impressed with Russell’s performance. He tweeted saying,
Sheesh this guy is ridiculous lol.
— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) April 16, 2015
At this point in the game, the final outcome was never in doubt. The Thunder were very clearly going to win this lop-sided battle. The main question was, how many points would Russell Westbrook score? Would he double his first half total and score 68? Put up 50 points again? Well, he surprisingly did not score that many points. He scored a grand total of 3 points in the third quarter, and he missed all five shots that he took in the quarter. He sat the whole fourth quarter, as the Thunder had obviously won the game at this point. Russell finished the game with 37 points, which is still extremely respectable.
He scored well above the number of points he needed to score in order to win the scoring title. Westbrook finished the season with 28.1 PPG; almost a half a point above his former teammate, James Harden. Russell also had 8 rebounds and 7 assists in the season finale.
Russell winning the scoring title was historic because the last time two teammates won the scoring title in back-to-back years was in 1952-53. ESPN Stats & Info tweeted this out along with a graphic of Westbrook and Kevin Durant saying,
Durant and Westbrook win back-to-back scoring titles Last time two players from same team won consecutively: 1952-53 pic.twitter.com/On7Oqjtb0e
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) April 16, 2015
The only thing that Russell is not celebrating at all is the fact that, despite the win, they will not make the playoffs. Sadly for the team and all of OKC’s fanbase; the Pelicans beat the red-hot Spurs, clinching the 8th and final spot in the playoffs. Despite Russell’s magical season that has been full of triple-doubles and 50-point games, the MVP candidate was not able to use up a little more of his magic and get the Thunder into the playoffs.
Russell said he would rather make the playoffs then win the scoring title, but unfortunately he won the scoring title instead. The playoffs will be different without the Thunder, but they will surely be back next year with Kevin Durant and a hunger to be there.
