NBA News NBA News, Match Reports and Updates
DENVER (AP)— Nikola Jokić is poised to achieve an average triple-double for the season, marking him as the third player in NBA history to accomplish this remarkable statistic.
This achievement became mathematically guaranteed on Friday night when Jokić secured his fourth assist during Denver’s match against the Memphis Grizzlies. That fourth assist pushed his season total to 700, confirming that he would end the season with no less than 10.0 assists over 70 games.
The only other players in NBA history to maintain an average triple-double for an entire season are Russell Westbrook, who is currently Jokić’s teammate in Denver, and the legendary Oscar Robertson.
Westbrook has achieved this feat four times—during the 2016-17, 2017-18, and 2018-19 seasons with Oklahoma City and again in 2020-21 with Washington. Robertson managed to do so during the 1961-62 season while playing for Cincinnati.
The crucial assist for Jokić came on a basket by Christian Braun with roughly 52 seconds remaining in the first half. Initially, this assist was not recorded, but the box score was revised at halftime.
Jokić also racked up a triple-double in the game itself, marking his 34th for the season. He finished with 26 points, 16 rebounds, and 12 assists in Denver’s 117-109 win. Currently, he is averaging 29.8 points, 12.8 rebounds, and 10.3 assists for the season.
The Serbian superstar, who has clinched three of the last four NBA MVP titles and is a leading candidate for the award again this season alongside Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, has recorded more triple-doubles this year than the combined total of the next three players in the league. No other player had more than 10 triple-doubles as of Friday.
This season will mark Jokić’s first time averaging double-digit assists, surpassing his previous personal best from 2022-23, when he averaged 9.8 assists along with 24.5 points and 11.8 rebounds.
“When you have a player like Jokić, who generates so much offense for his teammates, everyone is going to get great scoring opportunities if you’re not doing the right things,” said Minnesota coach Chris Finch earlier this month.
Jokić is also set to conclude this season with a career-high in scoring and is likely to achieve his second-best rebounding average. He is on track to establish personal bests in both three-pointers made and three-point shooting percentage this season.
To raise his scoring average to 30.0 for the season, Jokić will need to score 73 points in the final two games—against the Grizzlies on Friday and during the season finale in Houston on Sunday. Should he reach this target, he would become part of a select group with a 30-point triple-double average, a feat achieved only by Westbrook and Robertson.
With 164 regular-season triple-doubles under his belt, Jokić ranks second in NBA history, trailing only Westbrook, who has 203. He becomes only the second player to record at least 30 triple-doubles in a single season, joining Westbrook, who has accomplished this on three occasions.
