ATLANTA -- At first, Russell Westbrook couldnt get the shots to fall. No problem. He crashed the boards and kept looking for his teammates.Then, he found his shooting touch.The result: another triple-double for the Oklahoma City star.Westbrook scored 32 points, grabbed 13 rebounds and dished out 12 assists, extending his streak of triple-doubles to six games as the Thunder held off the Atlanta Hawks 102-99 on Monday night.It is the NBAs longest such run since Michael Jordan had seven in a row in 1989.I just read the game, Westbrook said. The game will tell you what to do.Westbrook has sparked a six-game winning streak by the Thunder and reached double figures in all three categories in half of their 22 games.By contrast, Jordan had 15 triple-doubles for the entire 1988-89 season.Obviously, the league hasnt seen something like this in a long, long time, Thunder coach Billy Donovan said.Westbrook kept his streak alive with plenty of time to spare. He had 15 points and 11 rebounds when he picked up his 10th assist with 6:20 left in the third quarter. Scooping up a loose ball after a turnover by the Hawks, Westbrook led a 2-on-1 that ended with a pass to Victor Oladipo for a layup that gave the Thunder a 69-59 lead.My job is to find those guys, Westbrook said.He found his range in the third quarter after missing eight of his first nine shots. Westbrook knocked down five of seven, three of them beyond the arc, and finished with 16 points in the period as the Thunder stretched a one-point halftime lead to 83-69 heading to the fourth.Atlanta rallied down the stretch, but Westbrook closed it out for the Thunder. He finished with 27 second-half points to send the Hawks to their seventh straight loss and 10th defeat in the last 11 games.Its the longest losing streak for the Hawks since they dropped eight in a row in February 2014.Coach Mike Budenholzer decided to shake things up, sending Kyle Korver to the bench and putting Thabo Sefolosha in the starting lineup. The Hawks also were bolstered by the return of Paul Millsap, who had missed three straight games with a sore hip. He led five players in double figures with 24 points.It didnt matter. Westbrook made sure of that.He can do so many different things, said Sefolosha, who was often matched on Westbrook. Its definitely mind-blowing. And the way he does it. Hes everywhere.Atlanta had a shot to send the game to overtime after Korver forced a jump ball.Westbrook and the Thunder clamped down defensively off the inbounds play, and Tim Hardaway Jr.s desperation 3-pointer at the buzzer failed to hit the rim.Cant dwell on it, Hardaway said. Ive got to move on to the next play, the next game.KORVERS NEW ROLEKorver played more than 31 minutes and seemed to thrive in his new role as a backup.He finished with 15 points on 5-of-9 shooting, knocking down three of them beyond the arc. It was his most points in a game since Nov. 22.Korver had averaged 6.6 points over his last seven games, which led to his benching.MONSTER JAMOladipo wasnt afraid to take on Dwight Howard in the lane.During the second quarter, the 6-foot-4 Thunder guard drove the baseline and slammed one over Atlantas 6-11 center, rocking the rim and drawing gasps from the crowd.Oladipo savored the moment, pumping his fists, stomping his feet and posing briefly in the lane even as the Hawks took off the other way.RECRUITING DWIGHTDonovan made a recruiting pitch to Howard while coaching at Florida.During his pregame chat with the media, the Oklahoma City coach recounted a visit to Howard and his father at Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy.Donovan quickly gave up any hope of getting Howard to attend college.All I had to do was watch one AAU game and then I stopped recruiting him immediately, he quipped.Howard, of course, went straight from high school to the NBA in the days before the rules required at least one year of college. He was the first overall pick by the Orlando Magic in 2004.UP NEXTThunder: Off until Friday, when they host the Houston Rockets.Hawks: Back in action Wednesday when the Miami Heat visit Philips Arena.---Follow Paul Newberry on Twitter at www.twitter.com/pnewberry1963 . His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/paul-newberry . Yeezy Outlet . -- Brandon Jennings made the most of his first game with the Detroit Pistons on Sunday night. Cyber Monday Yeezy . You can watch the game live on TSN at 7:30pm et/4:30pm pt. The Flyers had won seven of eight before dropping their last two outings on consecutive days over the weekend. Philadelphia was handed a 6-3 loss by the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday afternoon before dropping a 4-1 decision to the Rangers the following night in New York City. https://www.fakeyeezywholesaleonline.com/ . The recently retired Stern was elected Friday to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and will be enshrined with the class of 2014 on Aug. Black Friday Yeezy .J. Jefferson has been charged with assaulting his girlfriend. Yeezy Online . - The Oakland Raiders re-signed offensive lineman Khalif Barnes on Friday. When youre hitting over .300, leading the league in homers, and a lock to knock in 100 runs, youre going to be in the heart of the MVP discussion. At 24 years old, Kris Bryant has put up these numbers going into the final month of the regular season, not only making his case for top value in 2016, but also making it known that he could be this productive for the next decade.Yet when you try and check his defensive box, you cant. Bryant is one of the best super-utility players of this era, playing multiple positions, each requiring a different skill set and preparation. It has made him an irreplaceable asset in the Chicago Cubs machine and set the tone for all of baseball to take notice of the power of versatility. Bryant is a utility player who isnt just there to give better players a day off. Hes a fixture in one of the best lineups in Major League Baseball.No matter how you slice Bryants stats, hes clearly playing at a superstar level, but his versatility gives him an edge in the MVP race that cant be discounted -- and might be historic.With baseball defenses shifting all over the field to account for hitting tendencies, you can award bonus points toward Bryants MVP case. He has left field, center field, right field, first base, shortstop and third base in the defensive section of his resume. With shifts, he is playing everywhere between those traditional defensive spots, too. According to Baseball Info Solutions, Bryant has at least break-even Defensive Runs Saved at every position he has played. Overall, with five Defensive Runs Saved, Bryant rates fairly well, 89th among all players regardless of position, according to ESPN Stats & Information. He also rates well in his positioning metrics, with the one exception of when balls are hit to his left and he is playing third base. And these days, positioning is every bit as important as skills.Bryant wont be in the Gold Glove conversation for any particular position (maybe this is the year we add utility to the Gold Glove?). Still, looking at Bryant only through this lens misses his true defensive value.If you look at the past 15 years of utility players -- those who played at least 10 games at three different positions, with at least 300 plate appearances -- Bryants 2016 WAR (7.6) ranks second, trailing only the 2009 season of teammate Ben Zobrist (8.6), according to Baseball Info Solutions and based on FanGraphs WAR totals. And we still have another month left in the season.Lets say youre not a big WAR fan as a case for MVP. Well, consider what Cubs manager Joe Maddon calls the hidden value in versatility. The analytics are now refined enough to track every ball and where theyve been hit off every pitcher. From this data, you can produce a weight representing the frequency at which a ball is hit to a certain position on the field, based on real historical evidence. When it comes to the infield, it makes sense to put your best defender where you can now project the majority of balls will be hit.Javier Baez is the Cubs best defensive infielder, so you want him to play where the mmost action is.dddddddddddd Defensively, because Bryant can move around, you can place Baez where he most benefits the overall defense. If Bryant was only a pure third baseman, you could not upgrade third base defensively without losing Bryants bat. Now you can keep Bryants bat and cover, with your best defender, the spot where most of the balls are projected to travel.Utility defense is nothing new to baseball -- the need to have someone on the roster who can play just about anywhere is a time-honored tradition -- but in the case of Bryant, youre adding a deadly bat. It is rare air to be a force offensively while providing so many defensive options for a manager. According to Elias, only once in the history of the MVP award has a winner played 10 or more games at three different positions. Johnny Bench, 1970 National League MVP, played more than 10 games at catcher, first base and left field.Playing a single position used to be an art form, signifying a ballplayer was uniquely suited to his specialty. But now, no infielder has a true position. Even a shortstop knows being called a shortstop may not provide any clue as to where hell physically be on any given play.The impact of Bryants versatility goes beyond defense. It is felt in pitching and bench depth. It reduces the need to use two players for any one move. Whomever pinch hits could play defense at the position of their strength, and Bryant can then just be moved to accommodate him. This can also help in a double switch.New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi expressed the pitching benefit of having a swing man like Bryant. I need that guy. ... It can allow me to carry an extra pitcher.Bryant is an everyday All-Star starter and a versatile bench player all wrapped up into one. Theres no need for a specialist on the bench for every situation, and having one fewer specialist on the bench gives the Cubs an extra arm -- especially beneficial for the playoffs, and before rosters expand in September.This is all outside the actual physical challenge Bryant is undertaking by playing multiple positions. To be up to speed from so many angles on the field, to learn the slices, hooks, dips and dives of a variety of positions both in the infield and in the outfield, and to do it well, is a skill. You must have game-ready knowledge of cut-offs and relays, double-play pivots, rundowns, scooping balls out of the dirt and playing balls off an ivy-covered brick wall. At times, Bryant is navigating all of this in the same game.It was often said during my career, particularly by legendary baseball sage Syd Thrift, Have bat, will travel. Your career goes only as far as your hitting, but now with Kris Bryant, we find that if you know how to use more than one glove while putting up offensive numbers, you -- and your team -- can go even further, and do so using fewer position players.Whether or not Bryant wins the NL MVP Award, to me, this is the very definition of value. ' ' '