Anthony Davis had a massive night against the Denver Nuggets. Could he be the first player to collect a quintuple-double?
Anthony Davis of the New Orleans Pelicans had a massive night against the Denver Nuggets. He had 50 points on 17-of-34 shooting, as well as 16-of-17 from the free throw line.
Davis also had 16 rebounds, five assists, seven steals and four blocks. This incredibly impressive stat line led me to thinking that there has never been a player who has collected a quintuple-double–amassing 10 or more points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks.
The Quadruple-Double Men
Only four players have done the quadruple-double in the history of the NBA. The first player was Nate Thurmond in 1974 when he had the impressive stat line of 22 points, 14 rebounds, 13 assists and 12 blocks.
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The next time this rare event happened, Alvin Robertson collected 20 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists and 10 steals in 1986. This was 12 years after Thurmond had showed the world it was possible.
It would only be four years later that the incredible Hakeem Olajuwon would also complete the amazing feat. The thing about Olajuwon: he did not do it once in 1990, he did it twice. In the same month.
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On March 3, 1990, Olajuwon had 29 points, 18 rebounds, 10 assists and 11 blocks. Then on March 29, he had 18 points, 16 rebounds, 10 assists and 11 blocks.
The last time the quadruple-double has been accomplished was in 1994 by David Robinson, who collected 34 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists and 10 blocks.
Davis has showed that he has the talent to join this exclusive list but I think that his numbers throughout his short career thus far show that he is a chance at going one better.
Points
This one is the easiest for Davis. He has played 263 games in his career and had 10 or more points in 231 of them. Davis is the heart beat of the Pelicans offense and until he gets more players around him who can score will probably score double digits most nights in his career.
The start of the 2016-17 season has Davis so far scoring 50 points in the first game and 45 points in the second game.
Rebounds
Davis has also got a ferocious appetite for rebounds. In the 263 games that he has played he has 10 or more rebounds in 143 games, which is well better than half the games he has played.
While Davis has Alexis Ajinca and Omer Asik as the center combination playing along side him he will be a chance of getting well more than10 rebounds per night.
This season Davis has started well, Davis had 16 rebounds in the first game and then had 17 the next night.
Assists
Davis has never had 10 assists in a game. However, this does not mean that he is Hassan Whiteside. Davis has seven assists in a game twice in his career. If his teammates can start to make shots then Davis will be able to get more assists.
At the moment, Davis is scoring more than he is passing. Ninety-five points in two games was incredible, but no one man can beat the entire NBA. The Pelicans need to get some shooters around Davis to help him out.
When this happens, Davis will start to average more than the 1.7 assists per game that he has averaged so far in his career.
Steals
Davis has also never had ten steals in a game and this is the stat that will most probably stop him collecting the quin double. However, in saying that, Davis had seven steals in the first game of this season and has collected six steals twice in his career.
Davis is an incredibly fast player for his height with good hands and an incredible ability to read an offense. I can see Davis collecting double digits in steals before the end of his career. It feels like he has been around for a long time but this is only Davis’ fifth season in the NBA.
Blocks
The third stat that Davis has never got a double digit number in is blocks. However, this bridge will be crossed at some point this season. Davis has nine blocks four times in his career and with his freakish athleticism and ability to read the opponent’s shot, he will pass this magical number.
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I think that it will be against a team such as the Phoenix Suns, Portland Trail Blazers or Oklahoma City Thunder who rely on their guards driving for a large portion of their points.
Putting It All Together
Where Davis is going to have the greatest chance of putting it together is here and now. This season. The Pelicans are not a good team. In fact I would go as far as to say that they are a bad team.
As a result, Davis is going to play huge minutes, that is if his injury plagued body can hold up to the strain. In the Denver game, Davis played just more than 41 minutes. In the Warriors game, Davis played just less than 40 minutes.
In a blowout loss to the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday night, Davis logged just 32 minutes.
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If Davis continues to play this amount of court time he may in fact get the quintuple-double. If not, then he will get extremely close to it.