The Whiteboard: Klay Thompson broke a record while busting his slump

The Golden State Warriors have been winning without Klay Thompson shooting well, but it seems like his cold spell is over after his eruption on Monday.

The Golden State Warriors started the 2018-19 NBA season by winning six of their first seven games, and Steph Curry and Kevin Durant both seemed to be crushing it early on. Something was amiss in Golden State, though.

Klay Thompson shot just 39.6 percent from the field and 13.9 percent from 3-point territory across those first seven games, a legendary slump for Thompson, who is undoubtedly one of the best shooters in NBA history. He failed to make multiple 3s in all of those games, which is highly unusual for Thompson.

Nobody around the NBA or around the Warriors seemed very worried about any of this. Golden State was good enough to withstand his slump, and it was obvious Klay would pull it together eventually. Against a truly awful defense in the Chicago Bulls, it was suddenly Thompson’s time.

It took less than three minutes for Klay to hit multiple 3s for the first time this season. In just 27 total minutes, all Thompson did was hit 14 3-pointers, setting a new NBA record for triples in a game on his way to a jaw-dropping 52 points on just 29 shot attempts.

The record formerly belonged to his fellow Splash Brother, because of course it did, and it may only be a matter of time until Steph reclaims his record. Maybe not though, as there might not be anybody with a better ability to go completely unconscious on offense quicker than Klay. Remember that other time he set a record by dropping 37 points on the Kings in a single quarter?

Klay Thompson is an easy-going guy and probably a legitimate goofball, and he’s also just the third-best player on his own team. Those factors make it easy to overlook or underrate him, but Monday night was further evidence of why that’s a really bad idea.

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