Westbrook Joins Exclusive Company with 3rd 40-Point Triple-Double of Season

Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook had 40 points, 11 rebounds and 13 assists in Sunday's 115-112 loss to the Houston Rockets, making him just the third player in NBA history to record three triple-doubles that included 40-plus points in a single season, per NBA.com/stats.

The 26-year-old MVP candidate joins Michael Jordan (1988-89) and Oscar Robertson, the latter having actually accomplished the feat in four separate seasons.

According to Basketball-Reference.com's play index, Jordan and Westbrook are the only players since at least 1985-86 to record even two triple-doubles with 40-plus points in the same season.

With one more of these performances, Westbrook would stand alone as the only player since at least 1985-86 to record four such triple-doubles in a single season.

However, Westbrook's team only emerged victorious in one of the three games, and he was arguably outplayed Sunday by Houston Rockets guard James Harden, who finished with 41 points, six rebounds and six assists.

While Westbrook's counting stats were more impressive, Harden made 12 of his 22 field-goal attempts and 11 of his 13 free-throw attempts. Westbrook converted just 12 of his 29 field-goal attempts and 12 of his 15 shots from the line.

Harden leads the NBA with 10 40-point games so far this season, with Westbrook's eight such games good for a stranglehold on second place, per NBA.com/stats.

No other player has more than three 40-point games this season, including Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry, who joins Harden and Westbrook among the MVP favorites.