James Harden record triple-double gets hilarious take from Clippers coach Tyronn Lue
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Tyronn Lue’s Los Angeles Clippers defeated the Washington Wizards on Thursday night, with James Harden recording a triple-double in the victory.
For Harden, it was the 79th triple-double of his NBA career that has now spanned 16 years and 1,113 regular season games.
James Harden triple-double gets hilarious take from Tyronn Lue
The Clippers bounced back from a two-game losing streak, defeating the Wizards 110-93 on Thursday night.
Norman Powell led the way with 22 points, three rebounds, three assists, and three steals as seven Clippers scored in double-figures in the wire-to-wire victory. It was the 27th time in 36 appearances this season that Powell has recorded at least 20 points in a game.
Derrick Jones Jr. recorded 19 points and eight rebounds, following up his 29-point performance against the Boston Celtics one night prior. It was the first time in his NBA career he recorded back-to-back games of at least 19 points.
Ivica Zubac also returned from a two-game absence due to a corneal abrasion, finishing with 111 points and nine rebounds in a little over 29 minutes of play. Zubac finished just one rebound shy of his 27th double-double of the season, which would’ve tied a career-high set back in the 2022-23 season. The Clippers still have 37 games remaining.
The night, however, belonged to James Harden, who finished the game with 17 points, 12 rebounds, and 13 assists while taking just nine shots from the field in 33 minutes of play. Harden recorded the 79th career triple-double of his NBA career, passing Wilt Chamberlain for eighth most in NBA history and putting him just one back of Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic.
It’s an impressive feat for a superstar who started his career as a Sixth Man for the Oklahoma City Thunder with scoring being his strongest attribute.
“To take a guy who’s a dominating scorer who can score 50, 60 points and then, now you turn him into a guy who can get you 13, 14 assists,” Tyronn Lue said of Harden after the win. “Rebounding the basketball, I don’t know how he does it by jumping this high on the floor. But somehow he gets it done. Somehow he gets it done. He’s just, every time he’s getting better and better at certain things. And it doesn’t surprise me by him climbing the charts as far as triple-doubles. The rebounding a little bit, but the assists and points.”
When he heard of Lue’s comments, Harden let out a loud laugh in the background.
“It’s not about how high you jump,” the Clippers’ star responded. “You’ve got to track the ball. I’ve been doing it for a long time. I haven’t been the highest jumping guy my whole life, so figuring out ways to impact the game and I figure it out. I don’t know.”
Harden put his scoring on display once he got to the Houston Rockets, scoring a career-high 29 points per game while dishing out 7.5 assists and grabbing 6.1 rebounds per game. A big jump was made the following season, however, with Harden marginally increasing his scoring average (to 29.1 points per game), but increasing his assists by nearly four per game and his rebounds by two per game.
Tyronn Lue on James Harden:
"To take a guy who's a dominating scorer who can score 50, 60. Now you turn him into a guy who can get you 13, 14 assists. Rebounding the basketball, I don't know how he does it by jumping this high on the floor. Somehow he gets it done." pic.twitter.com/QBejfcOoAu
— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) January 24, 2025
The superstar guard, who recorded nine triple-doubles in his first four seasons with the Rockets, finished the 2016-17 with 22 of them. After notching his second of the season on Thursday night, Harden expressed how important the feat is because it shows his ability to affect games beyond scoring.
“It means a lot, just impacting the games in other ways,” Harden said of reaching eighth all time in triple-doubles. “Scoring is one thing, but rebounding the basketball, facilitating is another thing, and just impacting the game. You don’t got to be the best player on the court by just scoring the basketball every single night. Obviously that helps, but there’s other ways to impact games. You’ve seen it throughout the course of history of the NBA. I’m just happy to be a part of one of those on the list.”
Harden was not named a starter for the 2025 NBA All-Star Game in San Francisco, California, but is hopeful to be named to the game when the coaches select the reserves next week.
“It [would] mean a lot, man. Just the work that I've put in individually and as a team. The accomplishments and my numbers are good enough. I've been on the other side where I led the league in assists and didn't make it. So it would be an honor to me. I would love be a part of the team.”
Tyronn Lue believes three of his players in James Harden, Norman Powell, and Ivica Zubac have cases for All-Star consideration.
“James, Norm, and Zu, they all three have a case,” Tyronn Lue said of his Clippers. “To be able to put this team on their back, missing Kawhi. Kawhi playing seven out of 43 games and those guys to carry the load. All of those guys deserve to be All-Stars. And so it’s tough when you’re in the West and all the players they have in the West, but they definitely put their names in that pool to be an All-Star. All three of those guys have done a great job to get us to this point.”
On the season, James Harden is averaging 21.2 points, 5.9 rebounds, 8.2 assists, and 1.4 steals per game. Entering Friday, the LA Clippers sit in sixth place in a Western Conference that has seeds 5-11 separated by just three games.
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