At 20 years and 15 days old, Los Angeles Lakers rookie point guard Lonzo Ball became the youngest player in NBA history to record a triple-double in Saturday night’s game against the Milwaukee Bucks, surpassing LeBron James’ record by five days.
While most people would be pretty happy to break that record, Ball didn’t care much about it as the Lakers lost the game 98-90, giving them three straight losses on their road trip.
Lakers head coach Luke Walton, who obviously wasn’t happy with the loss either, was still able to appreciate the importance of the record, calling it pretty cool, via Tania Ganguli of the L.A. Times:
“I would think it was cool,” Lakers coach Luke Walton said. “Whether he thinks it’s cool, Zo’s a tough one to figure out, so you’re gonna have to ask him. But I would think it’s a pretty cool record to have.”
Ball’s performance Saturday night wasn’t just an average triple-double, he also became is the first player in NBA history to record at least 19 points, 13 assists, 11 rebounds, 4 blocks and 3 steals in a single game.
Time and time again Ball has emphasized that the only thing that’s important to him is winning, but even in a losing effort Ball had to be happy with his performance against the Bucks as he has been the subject of a lot of criticism in recent weeks for his poor shooting.
In the game Ball knocked down seven of his 12 shot attempts, including three of his five three-pointers, marking the first time he has shot over 50 percent in a game in his career.
Ball will look to build off that performance on Monday when he faces the Phoenix Suns, the team he scored 29 points to go along with 11 rebounds and nine assists against earlier this season.
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