Hawks at Thunder
Russell Westbrook is sick of talking about triple-doubles, but not so sick of racking them up on the court and leading the Oklahoma City Thunder to wins. Westbrook will try to follow up his latest statistical marvel and lead the Thunder to another win when they host the Atlanta Hawks on Monday.
Westbrook went three straight games without a triple-double and shot 14-of-44 from the floor in back-to-back losses before finding his form with 26 points on 9-of-17 shooting, 11 rebounds and a career-high 22 assists in Saturday's 114-101 win over the Phoenix Suns. "It's just cool, it's fun," Oklahoma City guard Andre Roberson told ESPN.com of Westbrook's passing. "When you see that from a player, it makes you want to go out there and just play like he's playing. There's less stress, just playing the game you want to play. ... It was a good night." The Hawks are having some trouble stringing together good nights and dropped below .500 again with a 107-99 loss to the Charlotte Hornets on Saturday. Atlanta dropped 12 of its last 16 games and is struggling on the defensive end while surrendering an average of 116 points in the last three contests.
TV: 8 p.m. ET, FSN Southeast (Atlanta), FSN Oklahoma
ABOUT THE HAWKS (13-14): Atlanta is giving guard Tim Hardaway Jr. more playing time and a chance to work with the starting lineup, and he is responding with an average of 16.3 points in the last four games. Hardaway gives the team another athletic wing but is not doing much to help a defense that has drifted into the bottom third of the league in defensive field-goal percentage while letting opponents go off at 45.7 percent. The bright spot for the team continues to be center Dwight Howard, who collected 10 points and 23 rebounds in his third straight double-double on Saturday.
ABOUT THE THUNDER (16-11): Westbrook's 22 assists set a franchise record and helped Oklahoma City shoot 50.6 percent from the field in Saturday's win. "My teammates did a great job of spacing, catching and finishing and making some shots," Westbrook told reporters. "My job is to be able to find those guys. The ball is in my hands a lot and my job is to be able to find the guys and make it easy for those guys to be successful." Center Steven Adams scored 19 points and was on the receiving end of Westbrook's final assist of the night, which came off a "Shammgod" crossover popularized by former Providence College star God Shammgod that brought the Thunder crowd to its feet.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Thunder G Victor Oladipo (wrist) missed the last three games and is questionable for Monday.
2. Hawks G/F Kent Bazemore scored 17 points in 30 minutes on Saturday after totaling 12 points in his first two games back from a knee injury.
3. Westbrook collected 32 points, 13 rebounds and 12 assists in a 102-99 win at Atlanta on Dec. 5.