DENVER (AP) – Nikola Jokic will make an average triple -double for the season, making the star of Denver the third player in the history of the NBA to achieve such a feat.
He became statistically certain on Friday evening when Jokic obtained his fourth assist in the Denver match against the Memphis Grizzlies. This help was his 700th of the season, assuring him not to be worse than 10.0 assists for 70 games.
The other players on average an average of a triple-double for a full season: Russell Westbrook, current teammate of Jokic Denver, and the Basketball Temple Oscar Robertson.
Westbrook did it four times-2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19 for Oklahoma City, as well as in 2020-2021 for Washington-and Robertson did it during the 1961-62 season for Cincinnati.
The assistance that won him for Jokic came to a score by Christian Braun with around 52 seconds to play in the first half. It was not originally credited; The boxscore has been updated at halftime. Jokic also ended up obtaining a triple-double for the match, his 34th of the season. He had 26 points, 16 rebounds and 12 assists Denver’s victory 117-109.
JOKIC – The Serbian star who won three of the last four MVP NBA prices and is again a leading candidate for this honor this season with Shai Gilgeous -Alexander from Oklahoma City – has more triple -double this season than all three other players in the combined league. No other NBA player entered on Friday with more than 10 this season.
It will be the first time that Jokic has made two -digit averages in assists. His previous career best was 2022-23, when he finished with 9.8 assists with 24.5 points and 11.8 rebounds.
“When you have a guy like Jokic, who creates so much offense for his teammates, everyone is going to have a good appearance if you don’t do the right things,” said Minnesota coach Chris Finch earlier this month.
Jokic has also assured to finish this season with an average of career in the score and will probably end up with the second best average of his career as well. He will also establish career rects this season in 3 points made and a percentage of 3 points.
Jokic needed 73 points in the last two games of the season – against the Grizzlies on Friday and the final in Houston on Sunday – to bring its average to 30.0 for the season. If this happens, it would be the third triple-double average of 30 points in the history of the NBA; Westbrook and Robertson did it once.
Jokic has 164 triple-doubles in the regular season for his career, the second plus in the history of the NBA behind Westbrook 203. Jokic is the second player in NBA history to have at least 30 triple doubles in one season; The other is Westbrook, who succeeded in this feat three times.
___
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba
