All year we’ve been hearing about how much Russell Westbrook and James Harden are in the MVP race. The beard with his monster assist nights. Russ with his triple doubles. Tonight, the two went head-to-head as the Oklahoma City Thunder visited the Houston Rockets. And guess what? The matchup proved to be everything we asked for, and more.
Westbrook was out there scoring half of the team’s points through the first half. So was Harden.
The two created so much offense that the other eight players on the court hardly existed for most of the night. It was all eyes on James and Russell.
On one side, Westbrook dropped 49 points, grabbed 8 rebounds and dished out 5 assists. On the other, Harden had 26 points, 12 assists and 8 rebounds. Not too shabby of a stat line for either guy, especially for Russ, who has a career-high eight 3-pointers.
Unfortunately, the Thunder wound up losing thanks to a missed shot by Russ down the stretch and some made free throws by Nene with less than a second left to go in the game.
Regardless of how much work Westbrook put in, we’ve all heard him say the same thing this season: it’s about the wins. He didn’t get it on this night and that probably stings.
This game didn’t silence any of that talk of the two being MVP’s either. It has only fueled it.
FINAL: OKC 116 | HOU 118
OS REWIND: Russell Westbrook Records His 7th Consecutive Triple Double
OS REWIND: James Harden Snaps For A Triple-Double Against Spurs