Nikola Jokic made sure that he will only become the third player in the NBA history to end the season with an average triple-double when he played in the victory of the Denver Nuggets against the Memphis grizzly grozzlies.
The Serbian center on average two figures for points, rebounds and assists after winning its 34th triple-double of the season.
He scored 26 points, 12 assists and 26 rebounds in the victory of 117-109 of the Nuggets, which maintains them on a par for the fourth place of the Western Conference with a game of the regular season.
Elsewhere, Luka Doncic scored 39 points to help Los Angeles Lakers get third place from the Western Conference with a victory of 140-109 at home against the Houston Rockets.
Only two men had previously completed a regular season in the NBA with an average triple-double-the Denver teammate of Jokic, Russell Westbrook, who did it three times with Oklahoma City and once with the Washington Wizards, and Oscar Robertson, who did it during the 1961-62 season.
Jokic’s 12 assists against the grizzlyats mean that it is guaranteed to end the season with an average of more than 10 for the first time in his career.
It is also an average of two figures for rebounds and needs 47 points in the last Denver match of the regular season to push its average points of more than 30, which would also be a better.
The 30-year-old has already been named the most useful player (MVP) three times in the NBA regular season, and is again one of the best candidates this year, with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander from Oklahoma City.
“If he does not win the MVP, it’s the biggest season of all time so as not to win the MVP,” said the acting coach of the Nuggets, David Adelman.
Jokic has 164 triple-doubles from the regular season in his career, the second largest total in the history of the NBA behind the Westbrook 203.
He will such as extend this count in the last Denver match of the regular season at Houston Rockets on Sunday while the Nuggets aim to seal the fourth place they need to obtain a home advantage in the playoffs.
