Russell Westbrook might be the King when it comes to triple doubles, but he is not up to it when it matters the most.
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Scoring, assisting, OR rebounding in double digits is an achievement in itself, doing double of all three in a game gets you triple-doubles. And mastering that, one might think would be the toughest thing to do, but Russell Westbrook has 194 of them.
We are going to talk about triple-doubles here and it might be surprising that there would be no Westbrook at the top. The reason for it is that we are also talking about the NBA Finals.
The triple-double machine has played a single Finals series in his 14-year First Ballot Hall of Fame career and has 0 triple-doubles in those five games against the Miami Heat in 2012.
Now if we are talking about most triple-doubles in the Playoffs, the 9x All-Star does make it to the top-3 with twelve of those, but the other two players on that list have more than twice his number. And those two generational stars are the very gentlemen with most Finals triple-doubles in the history of the NBA.
LeBron James, Magic Johnson, and Draymond Green are the top 3 players with the most Triple Doubles in NBA Finals
It should not be a surprise that the Top-3 on the list are point-players who are 6ft 6′ or taller. A tall playmaker in basketball with a higher court vision can do things a typical guard can not.
The 6ft 9′ current Lakers superstar, LeBron James, is the one with 11 triple-doubles in 55 Finals games. While 6-foot-9′ former Lakers superstar Magic Johnson has 8 in 50 games. And Draymond Green, who, some might know as a triple single machine is 3rd with 3 in 33 games.
11 — LeBron James
8 — Magic Johnson
3 — Draymond GreenNobody else has more than 2. pic.twitter.com/QeSoxf7qEo
— StatMuse (@statmuse) August 1, 2022
Have a look at the top triple-double scorers in the history of the Playoffs as well.
Most triple doubles in the playoffs:
30 — Magic Johnson
28 — LeBron James
12 — Russell Westbrook
11 — Jason Kidd
10 — Draymond Green
10 — Rajon Rondo— PlayoffMuse (@playoffmuse_) August 1, 2022
So now everyone who plays basketball comes against these stats and knows how to do it in a beneficial manner, which would not be Brodie’s way. They would absolutely need to be much taller than a traditional guard though.