Magic Johnson's near miss with a quadruple-double (playoff edition)

[72-10]

In the first game of the 1983 playoffs, Magic had 19 points, 18 assists, 9 rebounds and 7 steals.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/...304240LAL.html

[SpaceJam]

I wouldn't really call that a near miss, a near miss would be 1 away.

3 steals is still kind of a big ask, impressive stat line nonetheless

[Psileas]

Although he hadn't yet hit his prime, those early, high rebounding, versions of Magic were even bigger triple-double machines than he was later. Plus, he was a great ball stealer in his first 5 seasons.

[72-10]

Outside of NBA Finals games by Shaq and Duncan, I believe this is the closest that a player has gotten to a quad in the postseason. Are there others?

[72-10]

Although he hadn't yet hit his prime, those early, high rebounding, versions of Magic were even bigger triple-double machines than he was later. Plus, he was a great ball stealer in his first 5 seasons.

Sorry it was 18 assists and 9 rebounds; typo

[mr4speed]

In the first game of the 1983 playoffs, Magic had 19 points, 18 assists, 9 rebounds and 7 steals.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/...304240LAL.html

Impressive stat line indeed! But there was no stopping Philly that year - Moses dominated Kareem and philly won 4 games to 0. Magic also committed 24 turnovers in only 4 games ( finals record for 4 games I believe) and shot a poor 40.3% for the series.

[72-10]

yeah Malone was shining. He almost had back-to-back 20-20s to close out the Finals as well.

Kareem really didn't rebound that well in the 80s, if you look at the stats he seemed to get beat a lot of nights, though it's probably really a matter of him being comfortable with deferring to teammates.

[24-Inch_Chrome]

Outside of NBA Finals games by Shaq and Duncan, I believe this is the closest that a player has gotten to a quad in the postseason. Are there others?

Duncan technically had a quadruple double, score-keeper just ****ed him out of one.

[JimmyMcAdocious]

I wouldn't really call that a near miss, a near miss would be 1 away.

3 steals is still kind of a big ask, impressive stat line nonetheless

Right. Because it's so easy to get 3 more steals. Only 10 single seasons has someone even averaged 3 or more steals in NBA history. Asking for 3 more steals is basically like asking for half the total steals he had in his 39 minutes already. It's a lot. Obviously doesn't work this way, but at his pace for that game he would have needed to play another 17 minutes. Which would be a 56 minute game. Not going to happen in a 21 point blowout.

But Magic is a beast and that's a great line. No doubting that.

[DaRkJaWs]

Outside of NBA Finals games by Shaq and Duncan, I believe this is the closest that a player has gotten to a quad in the postseason. Are there others?

His name was Wilt, breh

[StephHamann]

In the first game of the 1983 playoffs, Magic had 19 points, 18 assists, 9 rebounds and 7 steals.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/...304240LAL.html

Damn GOAT Aids infected player

[72-10]

Magic was a beast and he was getting steals like crazy in the early 80s. I believe he was averaging close to three a game in 81-82 until he was out with an injury (he led the league so you could just check the league leaders).

In a game on March 17, 1986, Jordan had seven steals in only 14 minutes of playing time. And this is a guy coming off a foot injury. He was limited by the organization to seven minutes in each half.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/...603170ATL.html

So you never know.