Nikola Jokic becomes third-ever NBA player to average triple-double for season

Nikola Jokic will average a triple-double for the season, making the Denver star the third player in NBA history to pull off such a feat.

It became statistically certain Friday night when Jokic got his fourth assist of Denver’s game against the Memphis Grizzlies. That assist was his 700th of the season — so, even if he doesn’t get another before Sunday’s end of the regular season, which would be his 70th game, he is assured of averaging no worse than 10.0 assists.

The other players to average a triple-double for a full season: Russell Westbrook, Jokic’s current Denver teammate, and Basketball Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson.

Westbrook did it four times — 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19 for Oklahoma City, as well as in 2020-21 for Washington — and Robertson did it in the 1961-62 season for Cincinnati.

The assist that clinched it for Jokic came on a score by Christian Braun with about 52 seconds left in the first half. It was not originally credited; the boxscore was updated at halftime. Jokic wound up getting a triple-double for the game as well, his 34th of the season.

Jokic — the Serbian star who has won three of the last four NBA MVP awards and is a top candidate for that honor again this season along with Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander — has more triple-doubles this season than any other three players in the league combined. No other NBA player else entered Friday with more than 10 this season.

This will be the first time Jokic averages double digits in assists. His previous career best was 2022-23, when he finished with 9.8 assists along with 24.5 points and 11.8 rebounds.

“When you have a guy like Jokic, who creates so much offense for his teammates, everyone’s going to have really good looks if you don’t do the right things,” Minnesota coach Chris Finch said earlier this month.

Jokic has also assured of finishing this season averaging a career-best in scoring and will likely end up with the second-best rebound average of his career as well. He’ll also set career-bests this season in 3-pointers made and 3-point percentage.

Jokic needed 73 points in the season’s final two games — against the Grizzlies on Friday and the finale at Houston on Sunday — to push his scoring average to 30.0 for the season. If that happens, it would be the third 30-point triple-double average in NBA history; Westbrook and Robertson both did that once.

Jokic has 164 regular-season triple-doubles for his career, second-most in NBA history behind Westbrook’s 203. Jokic is the second player in NBA history to have at least 30 triple-doubles in a season; the other is Westbrook, who has pulled that feat off three times.

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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