Everybody is celebrating Klay Thompson’s historic night

Klay Thompson had a game for the record books last night against the almost-literally defenseless Chicago Bulls. Thompson scored 52 points — the third 50-point game in the league this year — shot only 29 times and made an NBA-record 14 threes in just three quarters.

Thompson’s 27 minutes played is lowest recorded minutes total for a 50-point game in history, two minutes fewer than Damian Lillard, who scored 50 in 29 minutes last season. Thompson scored at an improbable 1.93 points per minute pace putting him in some rarified air. The all-time single-game leader in points per minute is, as you can probably guess, Wilt Chamberlain who scored 2.08 points per minute in March 1962 en route to his record-shattering 100 point game.

Prior to last night, the most recent challenger to Wilt’s points per minute throne was — ironically  — Thompson who scored 2.07 points per minute in a 60-point outburst back in 2016 against Indiana.

Also just ahead of Thompson’s pace last night was Kobe Bryant who scored 1.93 points per minute during his 81-point game in 2006. If Klay were to have kept up his torrid pace, he would have had, albeit unlikely, a real shot at 90 points. Likewise, the Golden State Warriors, themselves, were on a 184-point pace by halftime but that would’ve been particularly mean-spirited for the Warriors and Thompson to continue to pour it onto the hapless Bulls.

I mean, they already took Jordan Bell. No need to throw salt on the wounds.

I wrote last week about the rarity of 50-point games in October but that this season — with an explosion in league-wide pace and scoring — being ripe for record-breaking. Well, it happened and now we have our first October with three 50-point games since 1962.

Thompson set a league-record for threes made in a game with 14. We don’t need to go into too much detail on this because, well, he set the record. Thompson could have had a lot more but for now, he kept a new record obtainable. I wouldn’t be stunned if we see someone, maybe even one of his own teammates (Curry), challenge for that record this season.

Thompson was undeniably efficient last night with only 29 field goals attempted but that just barely puts him in the top 100 of fewest shot attempts in a 50+ point game. The all-time record for fewest shots in a 50-point game is owned by, who else, but Willie Burton.

Wait, what?

Yes, Willie “Moose” Burton owns the NBA-record with only 19 shot attempts in his 50 point game in 1994. Burton, then a member of the Philadelphia 76ers, feasted on the free-throw line against his former team (Miami) making 24 of 28 from the charity stripe en route to his career-best mark.

Burton’s previous career-high had been 27.

Burton, who wasn’t known as a particularly potent scorer, became one of the defacto leaders of Sixers that year along with Dana Barros, Jeff Malone, and Clearance Weatherspoon. Unsurprisingly, those four were not the cornerstones of a successful team as the Sixers won only 24 games.

“Moose” failed to ever reach the 50-point mark again, topping out at 33 and safely placing him in the Tony Delk-class of improbable 50-point games. Thompson’s slump buster to end all slump busters put him in the record-books but for how long? Given how this season has played out so far, we could be having many more conversations about 50-point games and record-setting three-point games.

If you’re interested in learning more about NBA history, check out our NBA history podcast, Over and Back, and the rest of our great podcasts hosted on The Step Back.