NBA Playoffs: Blake Griffin’s consecutive triple-doubles rare

Blake Griffin led the Los Angeles Clippers to a Game 1 victory on the road Monday night, putting up 26 points, 14 rebounds and 13 assists in L.A.’s 117-101 win over the Houston Rockets at the Toyota Center to open their Western Conference semifinal series.

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That gave Griffin triple-doubles in consecutive postseason games, the first player in nearly 13 years to turn that particular trick.

In the Clippers’ Game 7 victory over the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday at Staples Center, Griffin had 24 points, 13 boards and 10 dimes.

So how rare a feat is this? In the last 30 seasons—outside of the statistical anomaly that was the 2002 NBA Playoffs, when it was done three times—the only other player to accomplish the feat was Fat Lever of the Denver Nuggets, who did his across two different playoff campaigns.

Lever finished with 11 points, 12 assists and 11 rebounds in Denver’s 107-105 win over the Dallas Mavericks at Reunion Arena in Game 3 of the Western Conference semifinals.

But Lever injured his knee in Game 3 and missed the rest of the series, which Dallas wound up winning in six games.

Fast forward to April 28, 1989, and Game 1 of the Western Conference first-round between the Nuggets and Phoenix Suns at Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Lever went for 20 points, 17 assists and 12 boards, but Denver dropped a 104-103 decision en route to being swept in three games.

But in the 2002 NBA Playoffs, two different players turned the double-triple-double trick three different times.

Charlotte Hornets’ point guard Baron Davis did it first, going for 33 points, 14 rebounds and 10 assists in a 110-100 Game 3 victory over the Orlando Magic at TD Waterhouse Centre to put the Hornets up 2-1 in the series.

He was at it again in Game 4, this time messing around and finishing with 28 points, 11 boards and 10 dimes as Charlotte closed out the series at TD Waterhouse Centre with a 102-85 victory.

Not to be deterred, the triple-double king of his era—Jason Kidd—opened the Eastern Conference Finals with a flourish.

In Game 1 of the series, Kidd delivered 18 points, 13 rebounds and 11 assists to pace the New Jersey Nets to a 104-97 win over the Boston Celtics at Continental Airlines Arena.

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Kidd came back with 23 points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists in Game 2, but got little help as the Celtics evened the series with a 93-86 win—a game that featured the statistical cringe-worthiness of Boston’s Antoine Walker missing an amazing 21 shots while finishing with 26 points on 11-of-32 shooting.

Los Angeles Lakers great Magic Johnson leads the all-time list with 30 NBA Playoffs triple-doubles, including some that didn’t land on the list since 1985-86.

That’s a wide gap over second place on the list—Kidd, Larry Bird and LeBron James each have 11 postseason triple-doubles to their credit.

Rajon Rondo is the only other player on the list in double figures with 10—none of which were accomplished with the Mavericks this spring.

James is the active leader with 39 regular-season triple-doubles, while Oscar Robertson tops the all-time list with a whopping 181.

Next: The Greatest Player In Every Franchise's History

Blake Griffin enters rare company with consecutive triple-doubles

By Phil Watson | May 5, 2015

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