If Jusuf “Nurk Dowitzki” Nurkic had managed to do anything in the fourth quarter other than commit four fouls and get an assist, he might have had a quadruple-double. By my count (which is hastily done and could be off by as much as two hundred in either direction), he only needed three rebounds, four assists, and four blocks to get the quadub (that’s my new shorthand slang for quadruple-double, by the way). Take out the four blocks, which is an unrealistic block total to achieve in a single quarter, and you’ve got a plain ol’ triple-double, which would still be awesome. And in four more steals, and we’ve got another five-by-five on our hands.
Instead, Nurkic didn’t do anything of note in the fourth quarter, eventually got yanked for Meyers Leonard, and the Blazers held on to win. Maybe he was tired after dominating the end of the third quarter like he did. Maybe the Jazz drank MJ’s secret stuff in the break between the third and fourth quarters. In any case, a statline that looked outrageous at the end of the third quarter had moved from the “outrageous” category to the “pretty dang good” category by the end of the game.
OFFICIAL DTB VERDICT: This performance by Jusuf Nurkic was “pretty dang good”. Officially.