Nikola Jokić and the triple-double boom: Will the NBA have to temper scoring again?

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(Grant Thomas/Yahoo Sports Illustration)

We’re just days away from the NBA trade deadline on Feb. 6, which has understandably diverted our collective focus on transaction rumor mills and spicy off-court matters (thank you, Jimmy Butler and De’Aaron Fox!). But there’s something happening on the court that deserves our full attention.

Stat inflation is back.

Last January, scoring performances from individual players went off the charts. Seventy was the new 40. Joel Embiid scored 70 points and Karl-Anthony Towns poured in 62 on the same evening. Four days later, Luka Dončić put up 73 points the same night that Devin Booker tallied 62. When teams scored 150 points, we didn’t bat an eye.

Scoring had gotten so out of control that, in the middle of the season, the league office instructed its officials, unbeknownst to several teams I spoke with last year, to allow more physicality and make it tougher for offenses to put the ball in the basket. And at this rate, we may be heading that way again.

Scoring has been climbing as of late (have you seen the New York Knicks’ point totals lately?), but this year the stat inflation has revealed itself in a more subtle way: the once-elusive triple-double is now commonplace.

Nikola Jokić has been the face of the statistical surge. The three-time MVP has been on a tear recently, tallying six triple-doubles in his last seven games, including a preposterous 35-point, 22-rebound, 17-assist masterpiece against Sacramento. But it’s not just Jokić. All told, 27 players have registered a triple-double this season, some seemingly out of nowhere. On Saturday, Houston’s Amen Thompson accomplished the feat after not tallying more than five assists in any previous game this season.

We’re on a historic pace here, folks. We’re not even at the All-Star break and there have been 86 triple-doubles this season, putting the league on track for 155 triple-doubles, which would break the record of 142 triple-doubles set in 2020-21. To put 86 triple-doubles in perspective, the NBA had not seen that many in a full season until 2016-17 — and we still have about half the season left….

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Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2025-01-29 18:16:00

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