Under the weather, Jusuf Nurkić notches second straight triple-double for Jazz in loss to Spurs

Jusuf Nurkić had already made his mark in Utah and New Orleans Jazz history books on Tuesday night, becoming the 11th Jazz player to ever record a regular-season triple-double, and just the second to do so since 2008. Then on Thursday night, he notched another triple-double.

It had been more than 50 years since a Jazz player had recorded back-to-back triple-doubles, and it had only happened once, when ‘Pistol’ Pete Maravich logged triple-doubles on Jan. 17 and 19 in 1975.

And what’s more, Nurkić shouldn’t have even played on Thursday night. He woke up that morning sick as a dog, nauseous and without any energy.

But Thursday’s matchup was against Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs. The Jazz needed a true center and as much length as possible. He had been a big part of the game plan as the team prepared for the Spurs, hoping that as a facilitator he could draw Wembanyama away from the basket.

“I didn’t want to be the guy that was supposed to play and then not show up,” Nurkić told the Deseret News. “So I played.”

And he played great. He finished with 17 points, 11 rebounds and 14 assists, which is the most assists that any center has ever dished out in a single game for the Jazz.

“He screens his (butt) off, he talks, he’s tough on the defensive end, he’s gonna rebound, gonna do all the dirty work for us,” Keyonte George said of his teammate. “So just to see the skill come out — the passing ability ... making shots, touch around the basket — I think that’s big time for Nurk. Obviously I felt like he was comfortable, but now he’s getting to a whole another level."

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At halftime, instead of fine tuning with the rest of the team based on the first-half performance, Nurkić was throwing up. After the game was over, he said he was headed to get fluid treatment via I.V.

And with dark circles around his eyes, a pale complexion and sweating, he shook off questions regarding the feat of recording back-to-back triple-doubles because the Jazz fell to the Spurs, 126-109.

“It doesn’t really matter,” he said. “We lost the game.

Though the Jazz center might not be willing to recognize his accomplishments with the Jazz — he is known for being really self critical — the other players, his coaches and the fans have really come around and shown their adoration.

“He deserves it,” Jazz head coach Will Hardy said.

“Earlier in the year, we talked about Nurk probably being one of the unsung guys on our team, because no one drives home talking about screening. But he’s getting some praise that he deserves, and it’s great to see him have two games like that back-to-back. He’s helping our offense function in an unbelievable way ... It’s good to see the fans embrace Nurk. He loves it here. We love him. He deserves the love.”