Josh Giddey on Monday registered his second straight triple-double to lead the Oklahoma City Thunder to an overtime win over the New York Knicks on the road.
Giddey finished with a career-high 28 points, 12 assists, 11 rebounds and one steal during the 127-123 win to become just the seventh rookie ever to record back-to-back triple-doubles. He is the fourth player to have a triple-double in their Madison Square Garden debut.
The win by the Thunder snapped a five-game losing streak. Thunder guard Tre Mann produced a career-high 30 points in the win and joined Giddey as the only pair of rookie teammates in the past decade to each score at least 28 points.
Giddey was most happy about picking up the win in the Big Apple.
This was the place I was most excited about when I got drafted. You hear so many stories about the Garden and it was circled on my calendar for a long time. To be here undermanned on the road with a young team, and to win like we did in overtime, it’s a big win. We needed it to get kinda get ourselves back on track. We kinda fell into a bit of a losing streak so this was a good one to snap out of it.
When Giddey Met Roby@joshgiddey | @roby_isaiah pic.twitter.com/gGKeXbSfz8
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) February 15, 2022
Giddey last month became the youngest player ever to record a triple-double, surpassing LaMelo Ball, who accomplished the feat last season. He had his second triple-double on Saturday with 11 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists in a loss to the Chicago Bulls.
“He, obviously, can get that done because he has done it before,” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said. “The style he is playing with is contagious. I think he has a domino effect on the team with how he plays when he is in that mindset. I thought he was in last game against Chicago and I thought he was in it tonight.”
The sixth pick has stuffed the stat sheet all season long for the Thunder.
He has already surpassed Russell Westbrook for the most double-doubles by a Thunder rookie. He also recently joined LeBron James, Doncic and LaMelo Ball as the only teenagers with 500 points, 200 rebounds and 200 assists over the first 45 games of their career.
I love the garden 😁
— josh giddey (@joshgiddey) February 15, 2022
Giddey has often put the team’s success ahead of his own personal accomplishments but it is clear that Giddey is having a productive rookie campaign. He is putting up some rare numbers and has his name up there with some elite company, as a result.
This post originally appeared on Rookie Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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