Suns Dragan Bender becomes youngest ever to post 6/6/4/3 game

Dragan Bender quite literally had the game of his life last night against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Partly because Alex Len got into foul trouble and Marquese Chriss suffered a hip strain, the 20 year old Bender did not leave the game from the 4:37 mark of the first quarter until 7:42 remained in the final quarter while the Suns outscored the Thunder by 21 points. He returned just a minute later to finish the game.

What Bender did with his career high 39 minutes?

Oh, just have the best all around game in NBA history (well, at least since 1963 when basketball-reference.com has found these stats).

At 20 years and 51 days old, Bender joins Kevin Durant (20 years, 70 days old) as the only 20 year olds to even post a stat line like this:

• 6 three point makes (in 8 attempts)
• 6 rebounds
• 4 assists
• 3 blocks

And not even included in any highlight videos or stat lines are the number of times Bender stifled a big man or wing on the perimeter, preventing them from even trying to drive on him before he blocked their shot.

Basically, this is THE game you can point to for Bender as a fine young player who just needs to find the offensive consistency to post nights like these on the regular.

“It’s a lot of fun just being out there making all those shots just trying to win the game,” Bender said afterward.

Watch the highlights:

“Probably the most fun we’ve had as a team all year,” rookie Josh Jackson added.

Let’s not forget JJ. Jackson had a career game himself, with his first career double-double (17 points, 10 rebounds) plus 5 assists and a HUGE block.

Jackson joins only five other 20 year olds in NBA history to record the all-around stat line he did on Sunday night:

• 3 three point makes
• 10 rebounds
• 5 assists
• 1 block

And he did in the fewest minutes (31) by a wide margin among those players.

Here are Jackson’s highlights:

Bender the youngest ever to post a 6/6/4/3 game.

Jackson one of six 20 year olds to post a 3/10/5/1 game.

And last week, 20 year old forward Marquese Chriss became the youngest since Josh Smith in 2006 to post 3+ threes and 5+ blocks in a single game. And only Eddie Griffin, Kristaps Porzingis, Smith and Chriss have done it before turning 21 (since 1963, per bball-ref).

Not bad for three guys younger than “old man” 21-year old Devin Booker.