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Russell Westbrook is now the NBA all-time leader in triple-doubles

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Russell Westbrook has become the NBA’s all-time triple-double leader by tallying the 182nd of his career tonight at Atlanta – a record that has stood for 47 years, one month and 16 days since Oscar Robertson’s 181st and final triple-double of his career.

In games where Westbrook records a triple-double, his teams are a combined 136-45 (.751), including the Wizards’ current 21-14 record, where they have won 13 of their last 16 games with a Westbrook triple-double. His 182 career triple-doubles are also more than 26-of-30 NBA franchises, with only the Lakers, Kings, Celtics and Thunder (including Westbrook’s with the franchise) having more. Westbrook recorded 138 of his triple-doubles as a member of the Oklahoma City Thunder, the most in their franchise history. Westbrook is also the franchise leader for Washington (36) and broke Darrell Walker’s franchise record of 15 in just 38 games with the Wizards.

A link to a video tribute created by the Wizards featuring NBA and Monumental Sports & Entertainment luminaries as well as Westbrook’s family can be found here.

Westbrook recorded his first career triple-double on March 2, 2009, during his rookie season, a 17-point, 10-rebound and 10-assist outing against the Dallas Mavericks. Through the first six years of his career, Westbrook tallied just eight triple-doubles but has since recorded 174 in the last seven years, including an NBA-record 42 during the 2016-17 season. Westbrook has four career seasons with at least 25 triple-doubles, the most in league history, and also averaged a triple-double in each of those four seasons (which are four of the five seasons in NBA history where a player averaged a triple-double).

Westbrook’s single-game triple-double accomplishments include two games with 24 assists (January 10, 2019 and May 3, 2021), tied with Rajon Rondo and Isiah Thomas for the most assists in a triple-double. On May 3 of this season, Westbrook added 14 points and 21 rebounds to his career-high-tying and franchise-record-tying 24 assists to record his second career game with at least 20 rebounds and 20 assists, the only player in league history with multiple such games. On April 2, 2019 vs. the Lakers, Westbrook scored 20 points with 20 rebounds and 21 assists, becoming the second player in NBA history to record a 20-20-20 game along with Wilt Chamberlain. Overall, Westbrook has five career triple-doubles with at least 20 assists, the most in league history. On March 29, 2017 at Orlando, Westbrook scored 57 points with 13 rebounds and 11 assists for the second-highest scoring triple-double in league history (Harden, 60). His career-long and league-record streak of 11 games with a triple-double came from January 22 to February 14, 2019, the only 10+ game streak in league history.

With 182 triple-doubles in 940 games played, Westbrook has tallied a triple-double in 19.4% of his games played, the highest rate among the top 15 triple-double leaders. Since 2016-17, Westbrook has tallied a triple-double in 145 of 353, or 41.1% of his games played. Westbrook leads the league this season with 36 triple-doubles, the second-most triple-doubles in a single season in his career and the third-most in league history.

Celtics’ Jaylen Brown out for season with wrist injury

This past weekend Celtics guard/forward Jaylen Brown was diagnosed with a torn scapholunate ligament in his left wrist.

Brown is expected to have the torn ligament surgically repaired later this week, and will be out for the remainder of the 2020-21 season.

This is a huge blow to a Celtics team that has struggled this season but enjoyed fine play from Brown, one of the team’s core young stars.

Wizards guard Bradley Beal out with hamstring strain

Wizards guard Bradley Beal has been diagnosed with a left hamstring strain following MRI testing conducted yesterday. He will miss the team’s next two games (Monday and Wednesday at Atlanta) before being re-evaluated on Friday.

Beal sustained the injury during Saturday night’s win at Indiana.

Per the Washington Post, “I couldn’t tell you when I tweaked [the hamstring]. I knew it was just a little tight in the second half,” Beal said Saturday. “In the first play of the second half I twisted my damn ankle, and I just wanted to make sure — I went to the back, wanted to make sure it wasn’t too crazy. I’m always a guy who will bounce back pretty quick, especially with ankle injuries… But I went back out there, [and] my left hammy felt a little tight. I didn’t think anything of it. I just kept playing, pushed through it, and then I think the layup on [Doug] McDermott on the end that put us up one, that kind of intensified it a little bit. Then the final little floater I missed at the end, that definitely kind of put it over the top for me. Coach [Scott Brooks] played it smart, got me out of there, and thank God we closed it out.”

Knicks beat Clippers, remain 4th in East

The Knicks have exceeded expectations all season long, and the trend continued today in Los Angeles. Via the New York Post:

The Knicks usually struggle when Julius Randle struggles. But not when Derrick Rose plays like an MVP — and not when they get 3-point marksmanship from Reggie Bullock.

In the final regular-season home game for the Clippers, the Knicks spoiled the Sunday-matinee party with a resounding and sensational 106-100 victory before 2,578 relatively passive fans at Staples Center.

And now it might be time for Tom Thibodeau to look into making a starting-point guard change, finally.

Coming off the bench for a struggling Elfrid Payton, Rose carried the Knicks (38-30) on his shoulders with an MVP-type first half. Rose finished with 25 points and eight assists in 31 minutes.

Reggie Bullock, once a Clippers’ draft pick, poured in 24 points, making 5 of 11 3-pointers. Julius Randle made three big baskets down the stretch, but finished with just 14 points on 7 of 19 shooting with four turnovers. He also had 13 rebounds.

Via the New York Daily News:

With an impressive 106-100 road victory against the stacked Clippers, New York, currently fourth in the East, moved three games ahead of the seventh-seeded Celtics with four to play.

The Knicks (38-30) only need to finish in the top six to avoid a play-in game, and their magic number is 2. In other words, the franchise’s first playoff berth in eight years could be clinched as soon as Tuesday with a victory over the Lakers and a Celtics defeat to the Heat.

“That would be big,” Derrick Rose said. “But at the same time, (Tom Thibodeau) always talks about going through the finish line. We have to do our jobs to make sure we’re sharp and have a keen type of focus.”

The Knicks are 38-30 this season, which is the best 4th record in the Eastern conference.

Their leading scorers so far in 2020-21 are Randle at 24.1 points per game, RJ Barrett at 17.7 ppg, and Rose at 14.4 ppg.

One game behind the Knicks in a tight East race are the Hawks and Heat.

Magic sign Donta Hall for remainder of season

The Orlando Magic have signed free agent forward Donta Hall for the remainder of the regular season, President of Basketball Operations Jeff Weltman announced today.

The Magic was granted a hardship exception by the NBA in order to add Hall.

Per the Orlando Sentinel, “a hardship exception can be granted when a team has at least four players who have missed three or more games with an injury or illness and are expected to remain out for two more weeks. The team is then allowed to go over its roster limit.”

Hall (6’10”, 232, 8/7/97) played in eight games this season with the Magic, averaging 3.1 ppg. and 4.4 rpg. in 11.5 minpg. He originally signed a 10-day contract with Orlando on Apr. 13, then a second 10-day contract on Apr. 23, before being released from that contract on May 2.

Hall also played in 12 games this season (11 starts) with both Ignite and Raptors 905 of the NBA G League, averaging 10.2 ppg., 8.3 rpg., 1.5 apg. and 2.08 blkpg. in 24.8 minpg., while shooting .625 (50-80) from the floor.

During the 2019-20 campaign, Hall appeared in nine combined games with both Detroit and Brooklyn, averaging 4.3 ppg. and 4.2 rpg. in 14.8 minpg. He played in four games with the Pistons, averaging 1.5 ppg. and 3.8 rpg. in 12.0 minpg. Later in the season, Hall played five games with the Nets, averaging 6.6 ppg., 4.6 rpg. and 1.00 blkpg. in 17.0 minpg. He also appeared in 38 games (37 starts) with Grand Rapids of the NBA G League, averaging 15.4 ppg., 10.6 rpg., 1.0 apg., 1.45 blkpg. and 1.03 stlpg. in 28.6 minpg., while shooting .669 (230-344) from the floor. Hall was named to the All-NBA G League Second Team, the NBA G League All-Rookie Team and the NBA G League All-Defensive Team in 2019-20.

Undrafted by an NBA franchise, Hall played in 135 career games (85 starts) during four seasons at the University of Alabama, averaging 7.5 ppg., 6.3 rpg. and 1.69 blkpg. in 20.8 minpg., while shooting .661 (400-605) from the floor. He was named to the SEC All-Defensive Team as both a junior (2017-18) and a senior (2018-19).

Hall will wear #45 with the Orlando Magic.

Magic will reportedly bring back Donta Hall

A familiar face will soon reportedly be back in a Magic uniform. Via the Orlando Sentinel:

The Orlando Magic are planning to bring back forward/center Donta Hall for the remainder of the season, league sources confirmed Saturday with the Orlando Sentinel.

The Magic will use an injury hardship exception granted by the NBA to sign Hall.

The Magic had sought to sign free-agent forward Admiral Schofield to a 10-day contract using the exception, but the deal fell through.

The Magic are 21-46 in a season that saw them trade top players away to focus on a serious roster rebuild.

Upcoming Heat vs. Celtics games are huge for both teams

The NBA playoff race is coming down to the wire. As for the Heat, here’s the Sun Sentinel:

Despite not wanting to look too far ahead, the Heat (36-31) are well aware of the stakes in their upcoming matchups against the Celtics (35-32) on Sunday and Tuesday at TD Garden.

If the Heat win both games in Boston, they would win the season series against the Celtics, jump three games ahead of Boston in the standings and would give themselves the best chance at avoiding the play-in tournament for seeds seven through 10, with the tournament deciding which teams will occupy the No. 7 and No. 8 seeds in the playoffs in both conferences.

If the Heat split the matchups in Boston, they would lose the tiebreaker in the standings against the Celtics and put themselves in a tough spot heading into their final three games of the season: versus Philadelphia on Thursday, at Milwaukee on May 15 and at Detroit on May 16.

And via Boston.com:

The Celtics are currently 35-32, as of Saturday, and sit in seventh place in the Eastern Conference – one full game behind the sixth-place Miami Heat. They finish the regular season with two pivotal matchups with the Heat and games against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Minnesota Timberwolves, and New York Knicks before finding out their fate.

If they beat the Heat twice, they’re suddenly looking at the six-seed, and potentially even the five or four if they keep winning. If they lose twice, they’re almost certainly guaranteed to end up in the play-in, which will take place from May 18-21.

The Knicks are currently 4th in the East, Hawks 4th, Heat 6th, Celtics 7th.

Pelicans sign Naji Marshall to standard NBA contract

The New Orleans Pelicans have signed forward Naji Marshall to a multi-year contract.

Marshall, 6-7, 220, has appeared in 26 games for the Pelicans this season playing on a two-way contract, averaging 6.4 points, 4.1 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 0.8 steals. The Atlantic City, NJ native appeared in 12 regular season games for the Erie BayHawks of the NBA G League earlier this year, posting averages of 15.5 points, 5.4 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.3 steals.

Over his three-year career at Xavier (OH) University, Marshall appeared in 99 career games and averaged 12.9 points, 5.9 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 1.0 steals. He earned All-Big East First Team honors in 2020 after averaging a career-high 16.8 points and 4.0 assists, to go along with 6.3 rebounds and 1.3 steals.

Rockets sign guard Khyri Thomas to 10-day contract

The Houston Rockets have signed guard Khyri Thomas to a 10-day contract using a hardship exception.

Thomas (6-3, 210) was originally the 38th overall pick by Philadelphia in the 2018 NBA Draft before his rights were traded to Detroit. He appeared in a total of 34 games for the Pistons over the past two seasons.

This season, Thomas appeared in seven games for the Austin Spurs during the NBA G League bubble while averaging 13.9 points, 3.4 rebounds and 2.3 3-pointers made on 45.7% shooting. He had the fourth-highest 3-point percentage of any player who averaged at least 2.0 3FGM with two or more games played.

Thomas earned Big East Defensive Player of the Year honors in two of his three seasons at Creighton. He shot 40.6% from 3-point range for his career with the Bluejays.

Clippers racking up turnovers lately

The Clippers have racked up lots of turnovers lately. This isn’t an emergency. There is no cause for alarm. It’s just a thing to keep an eye on should you happen to watch the squad’s next few games. Via the OC Register:

Before the All-Star break, they averaged 13.3 turnovers per game, sixth-fewest in the NBA. There was a span in March — when [Patrick] Beverley was out with a sore knee but [Kawhi] Leonard was available — that the Clippers registered fewer than 10 turnovers in four of five games.

But then, between April 11 and April 28 — a time frame for which Beverley was sidelined the whole while and Leonard missed all but one game — the Clippers averaged 14.7 turnovers.

And now that they’ve plugged Beverley and Leonard back in and are striving to put it all together again, they followed that 18-turnover outing against the Raptors with a season-high 22 turnovers against the Lakers.