#11 | Shooting Guard
A Legend in the Making
The best way to put Klay Thompson into perspective: He can turn basketball royalty into pre-teens having a sugar rush.
He did so, again, scoring 60 points in 29 minutes in a rout of Indiana.
Thompson doesn’t have big games. He has events. He has performances that warp basketball reality. He belittles traditional scoring feats by pulling them off with unbecoming ease.
This is becoming Thompson’s legacy. An ability to explode at random. A skill so profound it leaves greats baffled.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Kevin Durant said. “In 29 minutes? And not even play the fourth quarter? That’s unheard of. I mean I’ve watched Kobe (Bryant) score 80 and 62 in three quarters but to be on a team and be at the game and be on the sideline to watch it, that was crazy.”
Durant is the best pure scorer in the NBA. And Thompson’s manner of scoring turned him into a giddy kid.
This is why Thompson was not going to be traded. Not because he can be breathtaking. But because he is a critical part of the equation.
Thompson has become legend with these eruptions. Stephen Curry said this latest spectacle topped Thompson’s 37 points in a quarter nearly two years ago. He called Thompson’s Game 6 performance in the Western Conference Finals “1a” on Thompson’s list of historic performances.
While we’re at it: the list of Klay Games.
1. The game of his life
He scored 41 points at Oklahoma City — with the Warriors facing elimination, with Curry scuffling, with the Warriors trailing and in desperate need of something.
He made 11 threes, a playoff record, and scored 19 in the fourth quarter to leave Durant and the Thunder stunned.
2. 60
He only needed 33 shots. Per ESPN’s Tom Haberstroh, it only required 11 dribbles.
3. 37 in a quarter
That was the last time Thompson turned Oracle into Rucker Park. He turned a close game into a euphoric frenzy with jaw-dropping 3-point shooting. He made nine 3s in the quarter and hit 11 straight shots.
He was in a zone. He just threw it up and it went in.
4. Postseason breakout party
In Game 2 of the 2013 Western Conference semifinals, Thompson scored 34 in three quarters at San Antonio. It was his first “wow” game, coming after the Warriors blew an 18-point fourth quarter lead in Game 1.
The Spurs were bent on stopping Curry, who had 44 in Game 1. Thompson gave a glimpse into the future by making San Antonio pay.
5. 27 in a quarter
It’s small potatoes for Thompson, at this point. He blitzed visiting Phoenix in the third quarter last December.
He made nine straight shots, four of them threes, turning a competitive game into a laugher.
Klay Thompson can put points on the board as explosively as anyone in recent NBA history, as evidenced by his 60 points in 29 minutes against the Pacers in December. (Ray Chavez/Staff)
Thompson is becoming a legend for these outbursts. He is less a co-star and more the ruthless right hook in the Warriors’ deadly combination. It doesn’t always land. But when it does, oh my.
Every opponent has to be gravely concerned about Thompson turning them into a trivia question. And if his own Hall of Fame-bound teammates are blown away, how must opposing defenses feel? Thompson making two straight threes, and the Oracle crowd percolating, has to feel for the defense like the rumble that precedes the avalanche.
The most impressive part is that Thompson does this from the background. Players who blow up like that do so by dominating the ball. Thompson is the rare breed who takes over with the help of his team.
He is a finisher on the best passing team in the league. When the Warriors got Durant, Thompson said he wasn’t going to change his game. And he shouldn’t. This works because Thompson can take advantage like no other.
He is a top-notch scorer perennially guarded by second and third-notch defenders. He is feasting on open shots, even missed a few wide-open ones Monday that he was still thinking about after.
The Warriors need him to punish teams. And he has developed his game in a way that makes him even more equipped. He is moving off the ball expertly, attacking off the dribble, being smart about when to attack, gets himself into rhythm with his mid-range game.
Durant joked with Thompson that he blew his chance at 80 with his missed layups and bricked threes.
“I hate when I miss a wide-open corner three. That’s like a layup to a shooter,” Thompson said. “All of the best shooters to ever play this game are all big time perfectionists as players. Me, Steph and Kevin are no different. I just want to make every shot.”
Thompson tends to fly under the radar among the star-studded Warriors, but his scoring and perimeter defense are indispensable to the team’s identity. (Nhat V. Meyer/Staff)
Because he downs these things, his threat is nearly as impactful as his production. The fact that he can launch into these Twilight Zone moments is etched into the mind of every team the Warriors play.
And when his career is over, he will go down as one of those players who is most known for impressing his colleagues.
There is a list of all-time greats fans swoon over. And then there is the list that all-time greats swoon over. Those players that aren’t marketed to the masses like the top tier superstars, but those who played against them are still shaking their heads 20 years later. Their impact isn’t best expressed by their resume, but by their ability to make the best marvel.
Earl “The Pearl” Monroe. Bernard King. Elvin Hayes. Mitch Richmond. Kevin Johnson. Rod Strickland. Tracy McGrady. Gilbert Arenas.
Thompson will be like them. Everyone will remember Curry, Durant, LeBron James, Anthony Davis and James Harden from this era. But those players will be the ones to say “Don’t forget about Klay.”
The highlight of the night underscored how Thompson boggles the best.
It looked like a move straight from the 80s video game “Double Dribble.” Thompson caught the pass facing the crowd and moving towards the baseline. In one graceful motion, Thompson caught it, turned and fired — still drifting in the air — and drilled the 3-pointer over Monta Ellis’ best defense of the night. He landed out of bounds.
Curry, on the bench, couldn’t contain himself. He ran towards halfcourt, then back toward the bench, leaping into his teammates. He then weaved through his celebrating teammates and ran into the tunnel and out of sight.
Thompson’s craziness had the two-time MVP looking like a 7-year-old who desperately had to pee.
“That’s a feat that I would put money on to probably never be touched ever again in the history of basketball. It’s unbelievable,” Curry said of Klay’s 60 points in fewer than 30 minutes. “We have to be able to enjoy those historical performances. That’s what the game is all about.”