Domantas Sabonis could not have made an NBA All-Star workforce this season, however his exceptional statistical consistency goes to make it extremely tough to disclaim him an All-NBA slot. On Monday, the Sacramento Kings huge synthetic a little bit of NBA historical past when he recorded his tenth level and his tenth rebound on the exact same play. That gave him his 54th consecutive double-double.
That breaks a 13-year-old file set by Kevin Love throughout his time with the Minnesota Timberwolves for the longest consecutive streak of double-doubles for the reason that ABA/NBA merger. The large second got here within the third quarter, when teammate Keegan Murray was blocked. Sabonis rebounded the miss and scored on a putback, giving him each level and rebound No. 10 in the identical possession.
As spectacular as Sabonis’ file is, he is bought a protracted strategy to go earlier than he touches the pre-merger file. Between 1964 and 1967, Wilt Chamberlain earned double-doubles in 227 consecutive video games. That places Sabonis 173 double-doubles behind the Massive Dipper. To succeed in him, Sabonis would wish to place up a double-double in all 11 of Sacramento’s remaining regular-season video games in addition to mainly each sport for the following two seasons.
Nonetheless, even when Sabonis cannot catch Chamberlain this season, he does have extra historical past in entrance of him. At his present tempo, Sabonis is a near-lock to interrupt the file for many double-doubles in a single, post-merger season. That file is at present held by Hakeem Olajuwon, who put up 72 of them within the 1992-93 season. Sabonis now has 67 with 11 video games to play, giving him an opportunity to succeed in 78. If he does so, that may be a file that can doubtless stand for years to return. Within the fashionable NBA, most gamers do not even play in 78 video games, a lot much less put up double-doubles in all of them.
Sabonis will not break the triple-doubles file this season, however he is fairly excessive on that checklist as effectively. With 25 of them to date this season, he’s already tied for ninth in historical past. Russell Westbrook’s file of 42 seems as daunting on paper as Chamberlain’s 227-game double-double streak, however even reaching the highest 10 as a middle is a exceptional achievement. He, Chamberlain and Nikola Jokic are the one gamers to take action.
Even in an period by which statistical data are damaged extra regularly than ever, what Sabonis is doing now stands out. Consistency is a rarity within the load-management period. What Sabonis does each single night time is arguably the largest motive for Sacramento’s success since buying him. Now, he has the file to show it.
