After Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook nearly picked up his fourth triple-double of the playoffs last night, racking up 23 points, 13 assists, and 8 rebounds, Deadspin set out to learn if triple-doubles happened more commonly in the playoffs.
In doing so, they learned something old-time Nets fans may have known just by keeping their eyes open: everything triple-double comes back to former Nets guard and current Nets coach Jason Kidd. Kidd didn’t just own the triple-double, he was president, CEO, Dictator, Tyrant, and Prokhorov of Triple-Double Town:
While we were at it, though, we couldn’t help but notice Jason Kidd, the god of latter day triple-doubles. He was responsible for 11.6 percent of all triple-doubles in the regular season, and a full TWENTY PERCENT of all playoff triple doubles from 1999 through his retirement. So we thought, uhm, was it possible that Jason Kidd was singlehandedly boosting the league’s rate in the playoffs?
1 out of every 5 times someone picked up a triple-double in the playoffs in the last 15 years, it was Jason Kidd doing it. Kidd was so good at filling a stat sheet in his prime that they had to remove him from the equation entirely.
Kidd even averaged a triple-double for an entire playoff series in 2007. He broke the computer.
Unfortunately, 2007 Jason Kidd ain’t walking through that door, and 2014 Jason Kidd has to learn on the job how to lead his team back from a 3-1 best-of-seven series deficit against the defending champion Miami Heat. Good luck.
Deadspin — Are Triple-Doubles More Common In The Playoffs? (Also: Why?)
