Thompson never thought 60-point haul was possible
Klay Thompson scored 60 points in the Golden State Warriors’ 142-106 victory over the Indiana Pacers on Monday, a feat he never thought he would achieve.
Thompson’s career-high haul came in just 29 minutes, making him the first player in NBA history to score more than 50 points in under half an hour since the implementation of the shot clock.
The 26-year-old was 21 for 33 from the field and sunk eight of his 14 three-point attempts, inspiring the Warriors to a resounding win.
“I am going to watch the tape of this game and see what I did well and obviously celebrate this tonight because it is a feat I never thought I could do growing up,” Thompson told a post-match media conference.
Klay’s historic night lifts @warriors to victory. He drops 60 points in 29 minutes and earns the #SAPStatLineOfTheNight ! pic.twitter.com/EbA829w0e7
— NBA.com/Stats (@nbastats) December 6, 2016
“But it is quick turnaround and like I said before we are playing a really good LA [Clippers] team in a couple of days and have tough road games all the way through so I can’t just be satisfied with this and we’ve got to keep pushing.
“I’m proud of having zero turnovers and I felt like every shot I took was a good shot and just the way I was playing off my team-mates too, it’s easy to get open looks when you’re running off Zaza [Pachulia] and Draymond [Green] all night.”
Thompson scored two thirds of his points in the first half, but admitted he was more focused on his missed shots at half-time.
He added: “I just hate when I miss a wide-open corner three, that’s like a lay-up to a shooter. All the best shooters to ever play this game were big-time perfections, and I feel like me Steph [Curry] and Kevin [Durant] are no different.
“I remember the ones I miss more than the ones I make because I like to see what I did wrong. It’s part of the game and I can’t really complain with the night we had. We’re clicking right now.”
The Warriors are averaging 120 points per game in the 2016 season, but Thompson believes there is more to come from the offense.
The #DubNation bench is loving the @KlayThompson Show! pic.twitter.com/eXMX4b5DQA
— NBA (@NBA) December 6, 2016
“We’re only 21 games in, there’s definitely another gear [for the team]. We’re still relatively new playing with each other but it has been a smooth transition,” he said.
Thompson did not feature in the fourth quarter, and coach Steve Kerr insisted there was no way the guard was going back on ahead of a run of four matches in five days – the first of which comes against the Los Angeles Clippers on Thursday.
“We were up 35 [points] or whatever, the game was in hand, so there was never any thought about playing him again,” said Kerr.
“That was an amazing performance, we know he’s capable of that. When he got off to that start that he did … it started rolling downhill from there.”
