Flashback: The Night Klay Thompson Scored 37 in a Single Quarter

January 23, 2015. Nine three-pointers, nine makes, and 37 points in twelve minutes against the Kings. The most points in a quarter in NBA history, and one of the purest scoring bursts basketball has ever seen.

Every Warriors fan who was watching on January 23, 2015 remembers the exact feeling: disbelief turning into laughter turning into something close to awe. Klay Thompson had a quiet first half against the Sacramento Kings, going 3-for-9 from the floor. Then the third quarter started, and the building at Oracle Arena tilted on its axis.

Thompson scored 37 points in that single quarter, the most any player has ever scored in one period in NBA history. He went a perfect 9-for-9 from three-point range and didn't miss a single shot in the frame. He personally outscored the entire Kings team over those twelve minutes, 37 to 22, and put up 37 of the Warriors' 41 points in the quarter. Golden State won 126-101, and Thompson finished with 52 points despite sitting the last nine and a half minutes because the game was long over.

The timing made it even sweeter. Just days after that eruption, Thompson was named an All-Star for the first time in his career, and the Warriors were on their way to the first championship of the dynasty that summer. That night against the Kings was the loudest possible announcement that the quieter Splash Brother was every bit as dangerous as his backcourt partner. It remains the single most electric quarter in franchise history.

The previous record for points in a quarter was 33, shared by George Gervin and Carmelo Anthony, and it had stood in one form or another since 1978. Thompson didn't edge it. He beat it by four points while missing nothing, thirteen field goal attempts, thirteen makes, nine of them from behind the line, plus two free throws. There's no version of that stat line that's repeatable. Somebody will eventually score 38 in a quarter; nobody is going to do it without a miss.

The shape of it's what people who weren't watching never quite get. He didn't warm up into it. He was 3-for-9 at half-time and looked like he was having an ordinary night, then took the first shot of the third quarter and made everything for the next eleven minutes. He sat the entire fourth. Had Steve Kerr put him back on the floor with the game decided, 60 was on the table, and the only reason it didn't happen is that nobody blows out the Kings by 25 and then chases a number.

January 2015 is the hinge of the whole era. The Warriors were 34-6 that night, on their way to 67 wins and the first title of the run, the beginning of everything on the championship page that has a modern date next to it. Thompson had just been picked as an All-Star for the first time, and this was the game that ended the argument about whether he was a genuine co-star or a very good third option next to Stephen Curry.

It also wasn't a one-off, which is the part that gets flattened by time. Thompson later scored 60 points in 29 minutes against Indiana in December 2016 while barely dribbling the ball, dropped 41 with eleven threes in the Game 6 that saved the 2016 season in Oklahoma City, and on 29 October 2018 in Chicago made 14 three-pointers in a single game, a record that still stands in 2026, seven-plus seasons later. Two of the most absurd shooting records in the sport belong to the same man, and neither of them belongs to the teammate who redefined the shot.

Then came the knee in the 2019 Finals, the Achilles the following autumn, two and a half years without a game, and a return in January 2022 that ended with a fourth ring that summer. He left for Dallas in 2024. The 37-point quarter is the cleanest surviving artefact of the version of Klay Thompson who existed before any of that, twelve minutes, no misses, in a building that has also since been left behind. Everything on the Bay Area championship ledger from 2015 onward has his fingerprints on it.

• 37 points in the third quarter, the NBA record for a single quarter
• A perfect 9-for-9 from three-point range in the frame
• Outscored the entire Kings roster 37-22 over the quarter
• Finished with 52 despite resting most of the fourth quarter
• Named a first-time All-Star days later, on the way to the 2015 title

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