When point guard Russell Westbrook nailed a three-pointer at the buzzer in the Oklahoma City Thunder‘s 106-105 victory over the Denver Nuggets, that capped off a spectacular season and pushing the superstar point guard to multiple milestones.
Westbrook finished Sunday night’s game with 50 points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists. The output marked his 42nd triple-double of the season, breaking Oscar Robertson’s longstanding record of 41, per the Elias Sports Bureau (via ESPN.com). Robertson set the record in 1961-62 and it sat idle for 55 years before Westbrook’s impressive feat this season. Westbrook still has two more tilts remaining to improve on his total.
While the final shot of the game wasn’t a requirement for a triple-double, it did give Westbrook his third career triple-double in which he notched 50 points. No other player has recorded three such triple-doubles in a career, let alone in a single season.
The 28-year-old UCLA product has plenty of noteworthy moments thus far in his career, but Sunday’s game represented the first time in his career that he knocked down a game-winning shot at the buzzer. Given his age, Westbrook could have many more ahead of him before permanently hanging up the jersey.
Westbrook has taken on a clear leadership role with the club following Kevin Durant‘s departure in the offseason, leading the Thunder to a 46-34 record with two games left in the regular season. Oklahoma City is now locked into the sixth seed in the Western Conference, and a first-round matchup against the Houston Rockets awaits them once the regular season concludes.
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