The Extrmes of Triple-Doubles

Last season, Luka Dončić scored 60 points with 21 rebounds and 10 assists to lead the Mavericks to an overtime win over the Knicks. That performance tied for the most points ever in a triple-double (with points, rebounds, and assists as the stats), as James Harden had a 60-10-11 line for the Rockets in 2018 against the Magic.

I love using Stathead to go down rabbit holes for stuff like this, and found that those two 60-point triple-doubles are among 16 games in NBA history where a player scored 50 in a triple-double. Five of those belong to Harden.

50-point triple-doubles leaderboard

Russell Westbrook has the only playoff 50-point triple-double, going 51-10-13 in Game 2 of the first round of the 2017 Thunder-Rockets first-round series. It was a 115-111 Oklahoma City loss, and for that series, Westbrook averaged 37.4-11.6-10.8 for that series, but it wasn’t enough to do anything but lose in five to Harden and the Rockets.

Of the 15 regular-season performances, Westbrook can only find fellowship with one whose heroics weren’t enough to win: Wilt Chamberlain (51-29-11) in a 1963 San Francisco overtime loss to the Pistons at the Cow Palace.

Those 29 rebounds are the second-most in a 50-point triple-double, behind what Chamberlain did in 1968, going 53-32-14 in a 158-128 Philly win over the Lakers.

Getting a 30-rebound triple-double also means it’s extremely likely that your team won. It’s happened 19 times, with the only loss coming for Maurice Stokes’ Cincinnati Royals in 1957 against the Celtics. It also may be something we never see again, as there have only been three 25-rebound triple-doubles in the last half-century. That said, two of those (Maurice Lucas in 1980 is the outlier) were by active players: Domantas Sabonis in 2021 (16-25-10) and Nikola Jokić in 2022 (40-27-10).

30-rebound triple-doubles leaderboard

The most assists in a points-rebounds-assists triple double is 24, a mark set by Isiah Thomas in 1985, then matched by Rajon Rondo in 2010 and Westbrook twice. Since we like round numbers, there have been 28 triple-doubles by a player with 20-plus assists, with Harden’s 20-11-21 against the Clippers in 2022 the most recent.

20-assist triple-double leaderboard

Which feat is the most impressive? Maybe it's a 20-20-20 triple-double. That's happened twice. Not surprisingly, one was Chamberlain, and the other was Westbrook.

The video of the second one is still great, an incredible all-around player doing everything.

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