Russell Westbrook had 35 points, a season-high 21 assists and 14 rebounds for his NBA-leading 16th triple-double, helping the Washington Wizards to a 132-124 win over the Indiana Pacers on Monday.
Westbrook also claimed the franchise career triple-double record in just his 38th game with the Wizards, this one coming while teammate and NBA leading scorer Bradley Beal sat out with a bruised hip.
Darrell Walker had 15 triple-doubles in 283 games for Washington between 1987 and 1991.
Photo: AP
“He does things that I’ve never seen,” Wizards coach Scott Brooks said of Westbrook, who he previously coached at Oklahoma City. “He’s a winner, man. He fights. He’s not perfect — and a lot of times the geniuses want to look at the things that he doesn’t do well, but sometimes they forget about the other things that he does well.”
Rui Hachimura scored 26 points and Chandler Hutchison had 18 in his debut with the Wizards, who won their second straight game after losing eight of nine.
Domantas Sabonis had 35 points and 11 rebounds for the Pacers, who lost their second in six games.
Indiana entered in ninth place in the Eastern Conference, two games ahead of Chicago for the 10th and final play-in spot. The Pacers are now four games ahead of the Wizards, who began the day in 13th.
Malcolm Brogdon added 26 points for Indiana, who were out-rebounded 55-37.
“Not good enough,” Brogdon said of the team performance. “They played harder.”
Neither team led by more than six points until the final quarter.
Westbrook and the Wizards outscored the Pacers 22-8 over the last 5 minutes, 47 seconds, a stretch that began with a 13-0 run.
Westbrook’s feed inside to Hachimura gave Washington the lead for good with 4:37 to play.
He followed that with two spot-up three-pointers over Myles Turner, the second one from the right wing, giving Washington its largest advantage to that point, 128-120, with 44.8 seconds to play.
“He shot it well from the arc today and obviously everywhere, and passed it well,” Pacers coach Nate Bjorkgren said of Westbrook. “It was one of those games tonight that didn’t go our way.”
Also on Monday, it was:
‧ Heat 98, Knicks 88
‧ Clippers 129, Bucks 105
‧ Mavericks 127, Thunder 106
‧ Nets 112, Timberwolves 107
‧ Pelicans 115, Celtics 109
‧ Grizzlies 120, Rockets 110
‧ Pistons 118, Raptors 104
‧ Kings 132, Spurs 115
‧ Jazz 114, Cavaliers 75
‧ Warriors 116, Bulls 102
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