Houston Rockets: Why isn’t there any national talk about Westbrook’s streak?

With Houston Rockets guard Russell Westbrook currently riding a 20-point scoring streak, it’s worth questioning why there hasn’t been any national coverage about this.

Following the acquisition of Russell Westbrook, the Houston Rockets faced many questions from the national media on how Russ would fit. These questions were fair, as the Rockets employ a heavy 3-point offense, which isn’t necessarily a strength of Westbrook’s. On top of that, The Brodie has been accustomed to having the ball in his hands, which many expected to not be the case while playing alongside James Harden.

But Westbrook has averaged 26.7 points per game this season, which is the third-most of his career and the ninth-best in the league this season. Not only have Westbrook’s scoring numbers gone up, he’s currently riding a 20-point game streak which is also a personal best, but you may not be aware of that.

Westbrook has had 24 consecutive games in which he’s scored at least 20 points, which is an indication of how he’s found his niche in the Rockets offense. This brings about the question of why there has been so little coverage of Westbrook’s streak.

Granted, the Rockets are familiar with scoring streaks, as James Harden scored at least 30 points in 32 consecutive games during the 2018-19 season as well. Imagine that: Rockets Nation has been fortunate enough to witness scoring streaks in consecutive seasons, which is yet another example of the masterful job Daryl Morey has done of landing superstars in the Space City.

But what’s unusual about Westbrook’s streak is that it hasn’t gotten nearly the amount of national attention as it should, which is yet another example of the negative bias the national media has against the Rockets. It’s quite strange for a former MVP and two-time scoring champ to be having a personal scoring milestone and there being as little coverage as there has been regarding it.

When Russ was getting triple-doubles on essentially a nightly basis in Oklahoma City, the media was all over it, as there was a “triple-double watch” and an in-game update of how close he was to getting another one. But there has been no mention of Russ’s scoring streak outside of Houston, not even a crawl on ESPN.

All of the talk of late has been about the Houston Rockets’ small ball style of play, and there’s not been any talk about The Brodie’s scoring streak. As the Rockets have only three remaining back-to-back games on the schedule, there are likely 27 remaining regular season games in which Westbrook will play.

We don’t know if it will happen, but it would be amazing to see Westbrook keep the streak alive heading into the playoffs, because that would put it at 51 games. Maybe that would be enough of an accomplishment for the national media to recognize it, but don’t bank on it.