Not only did the Los Angeles Clippers defeat the Indiana Pacers 114-100 on Sunday, but they also got a historic performance from their big man Ivica Zubac.
Without Paul George and Kawhi Leonard in the lineup, Zubac stepped up to be “the guy” against Indiana, a role that we have not seen too often from him. In 36 minutes of play, Zubac ended up with a season-high 31 points on 14-17 shooting, a career-high 29 rebounds and 3 blocks.
Numbers like these from a center do not come around too often anymore, as Shaquille O’Neal was the last player to record at least 30 points, 25 rebounds and shoot at least 80 percent from the floor back in 2004, per ESPN.
Ivica Zubac also became just the third player in NBA history to have at least 31 points, 29 rebounds and 3 blocks in a game, the first since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar did so in 1978.
With his massive performance, Zubac also became the first player in team history to record both 25 points and 25 rebounds in a single game.
“I was mad at myself because I wanted to get that 30 and 30 so bad,” Zubac said after the game. “It hurts. It’s definitely not as happy as I should be… It's crazy. I always wanted to get a 20/20 game. It's crazy to be mentioned with Kareem. It’s incredible.”
Fouling out in the fourth quarter, Zubac came up just short of recording a 30-point, 30-rebound game, something that has only been done twice since the start of the 1983-84 season. In the last ten years, only four different players have scored at least 30 points and have recorded at least 25 rebounds in a single game: Anthony Davis (2019), Dwight Howard (2016, 2018), LaMarcus Aldridge (2013) and now Ivica Zubac (2022).
With this win, the Clippers now move to 12-9 on the season and with his 29-rebound performance, Zubac now ranks first in the league in total rebounds on the season with 244 rebounds.
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