DENVER (AP) — Nikola Jokic will average a triple-double for the season, making the Denver star the third player in NBA history to pull off such a feat.
It became statistically certain Friday night when Jokic got his fourth assist of Denver’s game against the Memphis Grizzlies. That assist was his 700th of the season, assuring him of averaging no worse than 10.0 assists for 70 games. He'll
The other players to average a triple-double for a full season: Russell Westbrook, Jokic’s current Denver teammate, and Basketball Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson.
Westbrook did it four times — 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19 for Oklahoma City, as well as in 2020-21 for Washington — and Robertson did it in the 1961-62 season for Cincinnati.
“It's nice. I didn't do that before,” Jokic said postgame when asked about averaging a triple-double. “I don't know. I don't know what to say. It's good.”
The assist that clinched it for Jokic came on a score by Christian Braun with about 52 seconds left in the first half. It was not originally credited; the boxscore was updated at halftime. Jokic wound up getting a triple-double for the game as well, his 34th of the season. He had 26 points, 16 rebounds and 12 assists in Denver's 117-109 victory.
Jokic — the Serbian star who has won three of the last four NBA MVP awards and is a top candidate for that honor again this season along with Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander — has more triple-doubles this season than any other three players in the league combined. No other NBA player else entered Friday with more than 10 this season.
“If he doesn’t win the MVP it’s the greatest season of all time not to win it,” ,” interim coach David Adelman said.
This will be the first time Jokic averages double digits in assists. His previous career best was 2022-23, when he finished with 9.8 assists along with 24.5 points and 11.8 rebounds.
“When you have a guy like Jokic, who creates so much offense for his teammates, everyone’s going to have really good looks if you don’t do the right things,” Minnesota coach Chris Finch said earlier this month.
Jokic has also assured of finishing this season averaging a career-best in scoring and will likely end up with the second-best rebound average of his career as well. He’ll also set career-bests this season in 3-pointers made and 3-point percentage.
Jokic needed 73 points in the season’s final two games — against the Grizzlies on Friday and the finale at Houston on Sunday — to push his scoring average to 30.0 for the season. If that happens, it would be the third 30-point triple-double average in NBA history; Westbrook and Robertson both did that once.
Jokic has 164 regular-season triple-doubles for his career, second-most in NBA history behind Westbrook’s 203. Jokic is the second player in NBA history to have at least 30 triple-doubles in a season; the other is Westbrook, who has pulled that feat off three times.
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Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic warms up before an NBA basketball game against the Sacramento Kings, Wednesday, April 9, 2025, in Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Sara Nevis)
Memphis Grizzlies forward Jaren Jackson Jr., right, drives to the basket as Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic, left, defends in the first half of an NBA basketball game Friday, April 11, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Denver Nuggets guard Russell Westbrook, left, jokes with center Nikola Jokic, right, before an NBA basketball game against the Memphis Grizzlies, Friday, April 11, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
CRANS-MONTANA, Switzerland (AP) — In the aftermath of a fire inside a Swiss Alpine bar that killed 40 people celebrating the new year, survivors, friends and family members, the region’s top authorities and even Pope Leo have spoken to the public in remarks in French, Italian, German and English, reflecting the tradition of Swiss multilingualism.
Another 119 people were injured in the blaze early Thursday as it ripped through the busy Le Constellation bar at the ski resort of Crans-Montana, authorities said. It was one of the deadliest tragedies in Switzerland’s history.
Investigators said Friday that they believe sparkling candles atop Champagne bottles ignited the fatal fire when they came too close to the ceiling of the crowded bar.
Here’s a look at what people said in the wake of the disaster:
— “I’m looking everywhere. The body of my son is somewhere,” Laetitia Brodard told reporters Friday in Crans-Montana as she searched for her son, 16-year-old Arthur. “I want to know, where is my child, and be by his side. Wherever that may be, be it in the intensive care unit or the morgue.”
— “We were bringing people out, people were collapsing. We were doing everything we could to save them, we helped as many as we could. We saw people screaming, running,” Marc-Antoine Chavanon, 14, told The Associated Press in Crans-Montana on Friday, recounting how he rushed to the bar to help the injured. “There was one of our friends: She was struggling to get out, she was all burned. You can’t imagine the pain I saw.”
— “It was hard to live through for everyone. Also probably because everyone was asking themselves, ‘Was my child, my cousin, someone from the region at this party?’” Eric Bonvin, general director of the regional hospital in Sion that took in dozens of injured people, told AP on Friday. “This place was very well known as somewhere to celebrate the new year,” Bonvin said. “Also, seeing young people arrive — that’s always traumatic.”
— “I have seen horror, and I don’t know what else would be worse than this,” Gianni Campolo, a Swiss 19-year-old who was in Crans-Montana on vacation and rushed to the bar to help first responders, told France's TF1 television.
—“You will understand that the priority today is truly placed on identification, in order to allow the families to begin their mourning,” Beatrice Pilloud, the Valais region's attorney general, told reporters Friday during a news conference in Sion.
Pope Leo said in a telegram Friday to the bishop of Sion that he " wishes to express his compassion and concern to the relatives of the victims. He prays that the Lord will welcome the deceased into His abode of peace and light, and will sustain the courage of those who suffer in their hearts or in their bodies.”
— “We have numerous accounts of heroic actions, one could say of very strong solidarity in the moment,” Cantonal head of government Mathias Reynard told RTS radio Friday. "In the first minutes it was citizens — and in large part young people — who saved lives with their courage.”
— “Switzerland is a strong country not because it is sheltered from drama, but because it knows how to face them with courage and a spirit of mutual help," Swiss President Guy Parmelin, speaking on his first day in the position that changes hands annually, told reporters Thursday.
People bring flowers near the sealed off Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana, Swiss Alps, Switzerland, Friday, Jan. 2, 2026, where a devastating fire left dead and injured during the New Year's celebrations. (AP Photo/ Antonio Calanni)
A woman holding a stuffed animal, whose daughter is missing, gather with others near the sealed-off Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, Friday, Jan. 2, 2026, where a devastating fire left dead and injured during the New Year's celebrations. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)
People light candles near the sealed off Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana, Swiss Alps, Switzerland, Friday, Jan. 2, 2026, where a devastating fire left dead and injured during the New Year's celebrations. (AP Photo/ Antonio Calanni)
