Russell Westbrook, James Harden finish off historic month in style

Westbrook and Harden are first pair of teammates in NBA history to each average 30+ points and 5+ assists during the same month.

With 62 combined points in Saturday night’s statement victory in Boston, Houston Rockets guards Russell Westbrook and James Harden finished off a historic month of February in style.

With the Feb. 29 game in the books, Westbrook and Harden each averaged more than 30 points and five assists per game in February.

That makes the former MVPs and 2020 All-Stars the first pair of teammates in NBA history to each average that many points and assists per game in the same calendar month (with a minimum of five games).

Westbrook and Harden ranked second and third in the entire NBA, respectively, in February scoring. Westbrook averaged 33.4 points on 54.9% shooting for the month, including a 40% clip from 3-point range. All of those figures are his best in any month of the 2019-20 season.

Westbrook also averaged 7.3 rebounds, 6.0 assists, and 1.8 steals in February, and the Rockets were +9.3 each game during his minutes.

Meanwhile, Harden scored 31.9 points per game in February on 46.2% shooting and 37.3% on 3-pointers. He also added 7.9 assists, 6.5 rebounds, and 1.7 steals per game. It’s quite a turnaround from January, when Harden shot just 35.5% from the field and 27.0% on 3-pointers.

On a per-game basis, the Rockets were +9.7 during Harden’s minutes.

One big difference for the Rockets about the month of February was that Clint Capela, their previous starting center, didn’t play a single minute. With the switch to a smaller lineup bringing increased floor spacing on offense, Westbrook and Harden took advantage of open driving lanes.

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Best of all, the elite statistics by Harden and Westbrook were tightly correlated with wins by the team. The Rockets (39-20) finished the month 9-2, with the only losses on Feb. 7 in Phoenix (when Westbrook didn’t play) and on Feb. 9 to Utah on a wild Bojan Bogdanovic buzzer-beater.

After entering February at 3.5 games back of the Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Clippers for the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference, they finished the month just one game back of both teams.

They Rockets are also up 3.5 games at the moment on the Dallas Mavericks for the Southwest Division title, which could prove critical for playoff seeding and potential tiebreaker purposes. Entering February, Houston only led the Mavs by a half-game in the standings.

Now with six consecutive victories, Westbrook and Harden will look to continue their winning ways in March, which begins when the Rockets visit the New York Knicks (18-42) on Monday night. Tip-off from Madison Square Garden is set for 6:00 p.m. Central.

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