{"id":123736,"date":"2025-02-14T17:32:32","date_gmt":"2025-02-14T22:32:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=123736"},"modified":"2025-02-14T17:32:32","modified_gmt":"2025-02-14T22:32:32","slug":"kings-center-domantas-sabonis-historic-stat-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/02\/14\/kings-center-domantas-sabonis-historic-stat-line\/","title":{"rendered":"Kings’ Double-Double Machine Center Snags Historic Feat"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/span>Sacramento Kings<\/span><\/a>\u00a0center\u00a0<\/span>Domantas Sabonis<\/span><\/a> is a double-double machine; there’s no doubt about it. Technically, the Lithuanian veteran is listed as a power forward but can play both positions. Either way, if we’re going by the NBA’s positional category, he seems to accumulate double digits in major statistical categories more consistently than his contemporaries. To be clear, this isn’t to say that Sabonis is the greater big man over the likes of\u00a0<\/span>Nikola Joki\u0107<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0<\/span>Anthony Davis<\/span><\/a>, or\u00a0<\/span>Joel Embiid<\/span><\/a>\u00a0(a healthy Embiid). Still, Sabonis dominates in his own way, and it’s why he’s one of the top big men in the game today. When it comes to his double-doubles, they come heavy and often, much like his latest, which included a little bit of league history.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kings’ Double-Double Center Snags Historic Feat<\/h2>\n

Kings Center Domantas Sabonis’ Statistical Performance For the Record Books Included 28 Rebounds<\/h3>\n

No NBA player has finished a game with a stat line that reads 20 plus points, 28 plus rebounds, and five plus assists since Larry Smith did it in 1981. Smith accomplished the feat early in his career with the\u00a0<\/span>Golden State Warriors<\/span><\/a>. Unfortunately, as history will tell, the Warriors lost that game, and Smith’s wacky statistical performance will be remembered in a loss. History has repeated itself decades later, as Sabonis recorded 22 points, 28 rebounds, and five points in a seven-point loss on Thursday night. However, like Smith’s milestone coming in a loss, Sabonis and the Kings lost in overtime to the lowly New Orleans Pelicans, 140-133.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Double-Double Domination<\/h3>\n

The 28 rebounds stat is unbelievable. However, considering Sabonis’s knack for consistently achieving rebounds at a high rate, maybe it’s not so unbelievable after all. On the season,\u00a0<\/span>Sabonis has 49 double-doubles (listed as a power forward)<\/span><\/a>, which leads the position. He also leads in triple-doubles with eight. If we include both the center and power forward positions, Sabonis still leads in double-doubles.\u00a0<\/span>Joki\u0107, listed as a center on NBA.com<\/span><\/a>, is second with 41. Joki\u0107 leads the league in triple-doubles for all big men. Whichever position you hold Sabonis as, he’s a league leader either way. In the 2023-24 campaign, he finished with 77 double-doubles and 26 triple-doubles, again leading the league.<\/span><\/p>\n

Can Sabonis Carry Sacramento to the Playoffs Sans De’Aaron Fox?<\/h3>\n

Doug Christie has stepped in and done a wonderful job since Mike Brown’s exit. The Kings’ season turnaround appears headed for the playoffs, or at the very least, a play-in spot. Sacramento was underperforming and failing to recapture the success they’ve created over the last two seasons. Eventually,\u00a0<\/span>De’Aaron Fox<\/span><\/a>\u00a0was traded to the San Antonio Spurs, and\u00a0<\/span>Zach LaVine<\/span><\/a>\u00a0was welcomed to town. With Fox gone, much of the leadership and responsibility should now be on Sabonis’s shoulders.<\/span><\/p>\n

LaVine, along with mid-range master\u00a0<\/span>DeMar DeRozan<\/span><\/a>, are there to put up the points. Sabonis is now the anchor. \u00a0His presence in the paint, offensively and defensively, will play a significant role in how far the Kings go this season.\u00a0<\/span>Losing Fox hurts<\/span><\/a>, but there’s no tenable reason why the Kings can’t still vie for the post-season. As incredible as Sabonis’s stat lines are, no matter how many rebounds he pulls down, the Kings have to win games. That being said, 28 rebounds is still insane, win or lose.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a9 Ed Szczepanski-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Sacramento Kings\u00a0center\u00a0Domantas Sabonis is a double-double machine; there’s no doubt about it. Technically, the Lithuanian veteran is listed as a power forward but can play both positions. Either way, if we’re going by the NBA’s positional category, he seems to accumulate double digits in major statistical categories more consistently than his contemporaries. To be clear, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5081,"featured_media":123738,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[29,1608,62],"tags":[240,664,350,1102,267,72,457],"class_list":["post-123736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kings","category-basketball","category-nba","tag-anthony-davis","tag-deaaron-fox","tag-demar-derozan","tag-domantas-sabonis","tag-joel-embiid","tag-nikola-jokic","tag-zach-lavine"],"modified_by":"Aaron J Zacharias","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5081"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123736"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123736\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":123757,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123736\/revisions\/123757"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}