Historic Night in NBA for Westbrook, Harden
The last two NBA Most Valuable Players put on a show in the NBA Monday night.
2017 MVP Russell Westbrook notched his 10th consecutive game with a triple-double while former teammate and 2018 MVP James Harden scored at least 30 points for the 30th straight game.
Let’s start with Westbrook, who continues to pile up the triple double accolades. The 10-year guard out of UCLA finished with 21 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists in Oklahoma City’s 120-111 win over Portland. Westbrook started his triple-double streak against Portland on Jan. 22 with 29 points, 14 assists and 10 rebounds.
With triple-double No. 10 locked up, Westbrook broke a tie with Wilt Chamberlain for the NBA record for consecutive triple doubles. Chamberlain had nine straight triple-doubles in 1968.
Now to Harden, he’s been scoring like the rain coming down right now in Portland. However, last night the 2018 MVP needed a big spurt to keep his streak alive.
With 2:32 to go, the former Arizona State Sun Devil sat at 20 points. Harden scored 11 points in a 100-second span–from 2:32 to 52.9 seconds left–to reach 31 points against the Dallas Mavericks last night.
Harden only trails Wilt Chamberlain for the most consecutive games of scoring at least 30 points. Chamberlain had separate 30-point scoring streaks of 65-games and 31-games in his career. Harden’s 30-game-streak sits third behind the two Chamberlain streaks.
Houston beat Dallas, behind Harden’s 31 points, 120-104.
