AP Photo
Last night two players recorded their first career triple-double, Chuck Hayes and Blake Griffin.
Hayes, a 6’6 center, got his by scoring 13 points while recording 14 rebounds and 11 assists. Hayes is a notorious hard worker-high motor-type player so it is nice to see his efforts rewarded. Hayes was a key factor–as one might expect– in the Rockets 131-112 win over the Warriors. On the season Hayes is averaging 7.7 points, 7.7 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game, which makes this one of the more surprising triple-doubles in recent memory. It is not often you see a guy who averages such a miniscule number in one of those categories record a trip-dub. Good for Chuck Hayes.
Griffin, you know who Blake Griffin is, needed two overtimes to get his 10th assist, but hey, a triple-double is a triple-double. The Clippers squeaked past the Wizards in double overtime (the fifth overtime period played in two days at the Staples Center) 127-119, thanks in large part to Griffin’s impressive night. Griffin notched 33 points, 17 rebounds, and 10 assists. His last assist came from a kick out to ex-Wiz Randy Foye who buried a momentum three which sealed the game. Griffin had flirted with the rarified triple-double in prior games this season, but this was the first of his young career. While Griffin’s triple-double wasn’t expected it certainly wasn’t as random of Chuck Hayes’.
Hayes and Griffin now get their names listed besides those like: LeBron James, Rajon Rondo and Borris Diaw, all of whom have recorded a triple-double this season.
In other news around NBA the Pacers tamed the struggling Bobcats, which helped open up the Pacers lead to 3 games over both the Bobcats and Bucks–who lost to the Kings–in the enthralling race for the 8th seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. The new darlings in Denver got an impressive W against the Spurs, albeit a shorthanded Spurs squad. The Magic stymied a Knicks team that is now under .500 for the first time since November 27, when they were 8-9. There were some other games too.
In addition to Stacheketball Matt founded and runs the NBA blog, Momentum Three. You can find him on Twitter @Matthouston91 where he is not afraid to admit that he will be watching NCAA basketball tonight instead of the NBA. MARCH MADNESS Y’ALL
I think the most amazing part of this is that Hayes got double digits in points. Well done Chucky.