Washington
Houston’s James Harden scored a career-high 53 points, Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook achieved a first-half triple double and LeBron James sparked an injury-hit Cleveland squad in triumphant NBA efforts Saturday.
Westbrook, the NBA’s top scorer with 31.3 points a game, needed only 19 minutes to reach double figures and finished with 17 points, 14 assists and 12 rebounds in the Thunder’s 114-88 home victory over the Los Angeles Clippers.
Harden, Westbrook’s former Thunder teammate, had a triple double of his own with 17 assists—matching his career best—and 16 rebounds in powering the host Rockets over New York 129-122.
Four-time NBA Most Valuable Player James scored 32 points, 17 in the first quarter, and had nine assists while Kevin Love added 28 points and 10 rebounds to spark the defending NBA champion Cavaliers over host Charlotte 121-109.
Westbrook, the only NBA player since 1997 to manage a first-half triple double, scored 11 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and passed off 12 assists to spark Oklahoma City to a 69-40 half-time advantage. But Westbrook’s 16th triple double of the season fell short of the NBA’s fastest-ever triple double, achieved in only 17 minutes by Syracuse’s Jim Tucker in 1955.
At Charlotte, Jordan McRae scored 20 points in only his second career start to ease the load on James as Cleveland was missing guard Kyrie Irving due to a tight right hamstring and reserve forward Mike Dunleavy with an ankle injury.—AFP