Sabonis scores another triple-double and rises in the history charts, Embiid outperforms Jokic in back-to-back games

Domantas Sabonis, playing for Sacramento, had a triple-double again, but his team narrowly fell to Phoenix. Joel Embiid outplayed Nikola Jokic in a duel of the NBA’s two most recent MVPs.

Sabonis recorded his 11th triple-double of the season

In the Phoenix Suns vs. Sacramento Kings (119:117) Domantas Sabonis was again the best player of the visiting team. He recorded his 11th triple-double of the season and is starting to catch up to the season leader in this versatile activity Nikola Jokic. The Serbian has recorded one more in the current season.

Sabonis did not hit the 30-point mark again this time. He scored 21 points, grabbed 12 rebounds and sent 11 assists to his teammates. Overall, this is the 43rd such feat in his career to date and he has already climbed to 11th place in the NBA history charts in this activity. He tied another versatile player, namely Fat Lever.

However, his joy was spoiled by a narrow defeat. Although the Sacramento team dominated the first quarter and led by 17 points at halftime, they still lost the game, especially in the last quarter the Suns had the upper hand. In the end, Phoenix scored a 26-6 run and the game was decided by Kevin Durant’s four free throws at the end.

Embiid outplayed Jokic in the duel

The Philadelphia 76ers vs Denver Nuggets (126:121) featured offensive basketball with great individual performances on both sides. Both stars shone in the duel. On the side of Philadelphia the best scorer Joel Embiid and on the side of the defending champions Nikola Jokic.

The game was very evenly matched and the scores were spilling over on both sides. At halftime the score was 78:78, with Denver winning the third quarter by five points. However, Embiid dominated the last quarter and the team from Philadelphia won the last passage by 10 points.

Embiid crossed the 40-point mark again, this time he didn’t have double-digit rebounds, but he had 10 assists. In the scorers’ chart, he again slightly edged out Luka Doncic (33.6) with an average of 35.1 points per game. In addition, he broke the 30-point mark for the 18th consecutive game.

He tied the legendary Elgin Baylor for 6th place in the historical statistics. Moreover, he was traditionally supported by Tyrese Maxey, who added 25 points, while on the Nuggets’ side Jokic scored 25 points and reigned under the basket with 19 rebounds. However, he was left without much support from his teammates. That was the deciding factor in Philadelphia’s turnaround.

Source: NBA