Los Angeles: Russell Westbrook completed his collection with a triple-double on Saturday against the Chicago Bulls, the only NBA team who had denied the Oklahoma City star the statistical feat.
Westbrook, the reigning NBA Most Valuable Player, scored 12 points with 13 rebounds and 13 assists in Oklahoma City’s 101-69 rout of the Bulls.
He’s the first player to post a triple-double — notching double digits in three statistical categories — against all 29 opposing teams in the NBA.
It was his third triple-double of the young season, and he needed just 28 minutes on court to achieve it.
Carmelo Anthony and Paul George, new arrivals in Oklahoma City this season, combined to drain nine three-pointers, Anthony scoring 21 points and George 20.
Kiwi centre Steven Adams and Raymond Felton scored 12 points apiece as part of a balanced Thunder attack, and Oklahoma City held the Bulls to an anemic 28.2 per cent shooting.
“[Defence] just set the tone,” Westbrook said. “When we’re able to do that, it puts us in position to do good things.”
Friday’s defeat to the Minnesota Timberwolves, followed by a worrisome flight from Minneapolis to Chicago that left their charter plane damaged, didn’t appear to affect the Thunder on court.
They opened the game on a 15-3 scoring run, and led 50-31 at halftime.
Westbrook had two steals as part of a solid defensive effort that forced 19 Bulls turnovers.
“Honestly, my main thing coming into this year was finding ways to impact the game defensively the way I know I can,” Westbrook said. “For me, that’s part of my job ... to be that player who is able to do that on a night in, night out basis.”
Lauri Markkanen scored 15 points to lead the Bulls, who were coming off a 91-86 win over the Atlanta Hawks.
“We took a huge step in the wrong direction,” Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg said of his rebuilding team. “We didn’t compete.”
In New Orleans, DeMarcus Cousins notched a triple-double and Anthony Davis returned from injury to score 30 points as the Pelicans downed the Cleveland Cavaliers 123-101.
Cousins poured in 29 points with 12 rebounds and 10 assists for his first triple-double since arriving in New Orleans.
Davis, who missed Thursday’s game against the Sacramento Kings with a knee injury, pulled down 14 rebounds to go with his 30 points.
Jrue Holiday also had a season-high 29 points and seven assists, while E’Twaun Moore matched his career-high with 24 points.
The Pelicans improved to 3-3 - the first time since February of 2015 that they have reached .500.
“It just feels good,’ Davis said. “It’s just something we want to keep going.”
Kevin Love led the Cavaliers with 26 points and 11 rebounds.
Cavs superstar LeBron James added 18 points, five rebounds and eight assists — and insisted there was no cause for last season’s Eastern Conference champions to panic as they fell to 3-3.
“We’re fine, we’re fine,” James said of a Cavs team coping with injuries to guards Isaiah Thomas, Derrick Rose and Dwyane Wade.
“I’m an even-keel guy,” added James. “I understand it’s a long process for us. We’ve played some crazy lineups that we haven’t even played in practice. We’ll continue to get better.”
