During the offseason, the Golden State Warriors signed coveted free agent Kevin Durant, adding the former league MVP to a team that won a record 73 games and almost won the NBA title for a second straight season. If you want to bet on the NBA, our American site offers the latest NBA odds.
With Durant in the lineup, most of the media and fans have been focused on the newest Warrior and what he brings to the table, as well as current league MVP Stephen Curry, who became the first unanimous MVP in the league after a record breaking year.
Lost in all the hoopla was Klay Thompson, who was the second leading scorer on the team last year. On Monday, Thompson decided to remind the rest if the league that he is still one of the best shooters in the NBA, going off for 60 points against the Indiana Pacers.
Unlike other players that have scored 60 or more in an NBA game, Thompson became only the second player that realistically could have challenged Wilt Chamberlain’s record of 100 points in a game.
Thompson scored 60 points in 29 minutes on Monday, sitting out the entire fourth quarter. The Warriors sharp shooter finished the game 21-33, going 8-14 from three-point range and 10-11 from the free throw line. He also became the first player to score 50 points in a game he played less than 30 minutes in.
As a team, the Pacers made 26 field goals through the first three quarters.
As expected, after the game, there was a lot of praise heaped on Thompson for his performance, with many saying he would have broken Chamberlain’s record if he played in the fourth quarter.
If Thompson has stayed in the game and was shooting at the same pace, he would likely have broken the record, but the problem with speculating is there is no telling if he would have remained hot or not, which is part of what makes sports so much fun.
While this was one of the greatest shooting performances in NBA history, I won’t go as far as to say he would have broken Chamberlain’s record if Steve Kerr kept him in the game.
Going back to 2005, former Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant finished a game with 62 points after three quarters. In that game, Bryant actually outscored the Dallas Mavericks 62-61 through three quarters, which in my mind made that a better performance than Thompson’s.
A month after that performance, Bryant had 81 points in an overtime win against the Toronto Raptors.
The point I’m trying to make with the comparisons isn’t to diminish Thompson’s performance, it’s just to illustrate that people saying Thompson would have broken 100 have it wrong.
Since I’ve been watching the NBA, Bryant is the only player I have seen that will shoot the ball even when there are five guys covering him. After Shaquille O’Neal was traded from the Lakers, Bryant had full control of the offense. If a “ball hog” like Bryant, who was also one of the greatest scorers in NBA history couldn’t do it, it’s hard to imagine anyone else doing it, especially a team oriented player like Thompson.
