Wolves' Towns, Thunder's Westbrook have a lot in common
One is a 7-foot center and the other a 6-3 guard, but Minnesota's Karl-Anthony Towns and Oklahoma City's Russell Westbrook have a lot of common. At least when it comes to production on the basketball court.
When looking at who led their team in points and rebounds, both the star players names float to the top.
Since the beginning of last season, five players have led their team outright in both points and rebounds in a game at least 30 times. Westbrook is second in the NBA, having done it 40 times, while Towns is tied for third with DeMarcus Cousins, who began last season with Sacramento before being traded to New Orleans. Cousins' Pelicans teammate Anthony Davis is first with 41 such occurrences. Milwaukee's Giannis Antetokounmpo is the only other player with 30 or more, coming in exactly at 30.
As infomercials proclaim, but wait, there's more.
Since 2016-17, only four players are averaging 10 or more rebounds and at least one made 3-pointer per game, with Towns and Westbrook being two of the quartet (Cousins and Cleveland's Kevin Love are the others).
In addition, both Towns and Westbrook have been shooting the ball better this season.
Among those who played in at least 70 percent of his team's minutes last season and averaged eight or more field-goal attempts per game, Towns and Westbrook are among the best at improving their field-goal percentage.
Towns is shooting 59.7 percent -- a 5.5 percent increase from last season. Westbrook has a +5.2 percent differential from 2016-17 as he's making 47.7 percent of his shot thus far. Only three other players have a better differential -- Oklahoma City's Steven Adams, +9.6 percent; Houston's Clint Capela, +8.6 percent; and the Clippers' Patrick Beverley, +8.0 percent.
Oh yeah, one more thing about Westbrook and Towns -- they are both unequivocal NBA superstars, as if you had little doubt of this.
Other notes:
-- Minnesota is the only team to reach 100 points against Oklahoma City this season.
-- The Wolves are attempting seven more free throws per game compared to last season, the best differential of any team in the Western Conference. Meanwhile, Minnesota is second in the NBA in fewest fouls (16.6 per game) and opponents are averaging 6.9 fewer attempts compared to last season, which is the largest decrease in the league.
-- Towns and Andrew Wiggins have both scored 20 or more points in a game 71 times, the most of any NBA duo since 2015-16.
-- Towns already has four games with 15+ points and 10+ rebounds. Last season he led the NBA with 58 such games.
Statistics courtesy STATS
