Russell Westbrook just can't sit still.
Before a nationally televised game in Chicago on Thursday night, he explodes out of the Oklahoma City locker room and hops down the hallway in a blur, on his way to warm up in a tunnel off the court at the United Center. Before the game, the horn sounds and the teams line up for the national anthem. Westbrook sways his head as John Vincent bellows out the "Star Spangled Banner," and points up to the sky every few verses as his teammates stand still.
Finally, the game begins, and Westbrook is immediately at the center of everything, driving the lane and getting Serge Ibaka involved with the pick-and-pop. You get the feeling that Westbrook would serve beer to fans during timeouts if Scott Brooks would let him.
This is the first time that we've seen Westbrook unleashed without Kevin Durant beside him for an extended period, and he's showing what we suspected all along: He can do anything.
At the same time, the lingering question regarding Westbrook's dominance remains: Maybe he can do everything, but should he?
Historic numbers
Westbrook has been on quite a spree lately.
In Chicago's 108-105 win over the Thunder, Westbrook fell two rebounds and three assists shy of double digits, but still poured in 43 points, including 19 in the third quarter. The Thunder were outscored by eight points when Westbrook was on the floor that night, while the Bulls' E'Twaun Moore, who was matched up against Westbrook much of the night, was plus-17. You don't want to draw any conclusions from one game of plus-minus, but that night, the figures did tell the story.
Since Durant last played on Feb. 19, Westbrook has averaged 35 points, 11 rebounds and 10.9 assists in 36 minutes per contest. His usage rate during that span has been 43.9 percent, per basketball-reference.com's game logs.
For context, that figure exceeds Kobe Bryant's record-breaking 2005-06 usage rate by 5 percentage points.
He has also assisted on 56 percent of his teammates' field goals while on the floor during that span, a remarkable rate that is 10 percentage points higher than that of any other player. As it is, Westbrook leads the league for the season in both usage rate (38.4 percent) and assist rate (47.9). As fellow Insider Tom Haberstroh pointed out, Westbrook is dominating offensively in a way we've never quite seen before.
Westbrook's triple-double streak ended in Chicago, but he was literally all over the place on both ends of the floor. He went after just about every rebound, contested every shot on defense, charged down the court in transition and, of course, dominated the ball on virtually every offensive possession. Brooks rested him twice, and in both instances, as his time to re-enter the action approached, Westbrook stood on the sidelines eagerly, waiting for the dead ball that would spring him back into action. His energy ebbed only when it came time for interviews, when he'd hang his head and whisper his typical platitudes about just playing to win.
Westbrook has two streaks still alive entering Sunday night's showdown with the Toronto Raptors: He has scored at least 40 points in three straight games, and he has put up at least 30 shots in his last four outings. Since Durant went down, he has scored or assisted on over 47 percent of the Thunder's field goals -- and that includes the time he has spent on the bench, and the game he missed after getting his cheek dented against Portland.
What happens when Durant returns?
At some point, Durant will return, and his presence will have a naturally smoothing effect on Westbrook's game. With the game's best scorer beside him, Westbrook can't put his stamp on every possession, and the dynamic between the two stars has been polished over the past seven seasons.
However, given Westbrook's historic level of production of late, it's fair to wonder how far he could take Oklahoma City if Durant's foot problem ended up sidelining him for the season, which is still a possibility. Durant has said he expects to be back before the season is over, but there has no firm timetable established for that to happen. Meanwhile, the Thunder are trying to hold off a rapidly improving New Orleans Pelicans club that sits just a half-game back of Oklahoma City entering Sunday's action.
Thirty shot attempts should be the exception, not the rule. According to basketball-reference.com, since 1985-86, teams have won just 49.3 percent of games in which a player took at least 30 shots.
The Thunder have been so successful with their two-star system, that it only seems natural that with one guy out, the other would rev up the production, which would naturally result in the numbers Westbrook has been putting up. However, Oklahoma City has become as deep as it has ever been during the Westbrook-Durant era. And if you look closely at the recent results, the Thunder's improved second unit has had as much to do with their success as Westbrook's explosion.
The Thunder have gone 5-3 since Durant went back under the knife, but are just plus-6 with Westbrook on the floor during that time, per NBA.com/stats. That includes a plus-33 performance for Westbrook in a rout over Denver. The top plus-minus guys lately for the Thunder have been the reserves: Anthony Morrow, Dion Waiters, Nick Collison, D.J. Augustin and Mitch McGary. Starters Enes Kanter and Ibaka have likewise been strong in plus-minus, but more so when playing without Westbrook than with him. Westbrook had an epic game Wednesday, putting up 49 points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists. Yet the Thunder were outscored by 12 points with him on the floor and needed overtime to beat the woeful Sixers 123-118 in Oklahoma City.
His own worst enemy
The history of players who put so many fingerprints on their teams' possessions is mixed -- good teams, but no champions or finalists. The players themselves are all Hall of Fame level: Westbrook, LeBron James, Michael Jordan, Tiny Archibald and Oscar Robertson.
With the exception of Westbrook, all of those players own championship rings, but none of their titles (or Finals appearances) came when they were averaging at least 27 points and eight assists in the same season.
The bottom line is that historically speaking, individual production has a ceiling that manifests at the team level. This is why going forward, you'd like to see Westbrook dial it back a bit whether or not Durant gets back on the court. Thirty shot attempts should be the exception, not the rule. According to basketball-reference.com, since 1985-86, teams have won just 49.3 percent of games in which a player took at least 30 shots.
Five of Westbrook's 10 career games with that many attempts have come this season. The Thunder have lost four of those games, and have been minus-41 with Westbrook on the floor. This is not unusual. The Lakers are just 45-63 during Bryant's career when he takes 30 shots. Nitpicking about 30 shots might be arbitrary, but it's a figure that tends to be more a symptom than an achievement.
The last-second loss to Chicago symbolized why despite his best intentions and supreme competitiveness, Westbrook can sometimes be his own worst enemy. With the Thunder up by a point and the Bulls inbounding the ball in the final seconds, Westbrook chased Moore into the middle. Then Moore cut away from Pau Gasol, who was leaping to catch the inbound pass in the lane.
Westbrook charged at Gasol to double-team, and the smooth-passing center redirected the ball to the unguarded Moore in the corner. Westbrook turned and leaped at Moore, but too late. The ball swished through the net, putting the Bulls up two with 2.1 seconds remaining. It certainly appeared that Gasol had made up his mind to leverage Westbrook's aggressiveness against him.
Chicago took advantage of that same trait after the Thunder's subsequent timeout, putting two defenders on Westbrook. Westbrook raced to get the ball, but couldn't get his hands on it until his foot was on the sideline, a turnover that iced Chicago's win. It was only one play, and only one loss, but there was a cautionary tale for the Thunder in the sequence. Westbrook is proving that he can do anything on the basketball court, and it's been thrilling to watch. However, it might not be a good idea for him to do everything.