Halfway Down and Out: Klay's 3rd Quarter
It was a cold, random Friday night back in January of 2015.
Life was a lot different for me back then. I’m sure it was for you, too.
Seven years is a really long time. Enough time to have a completely different life now. A different life with new routines, new relationships and plenty of experiences along the way that changed you forever.
Klay Thompson’s 3rd quarter was one of those life-changing experiences for me.
It was getting late on that cold, random Friday night back in January of 2015. Except it wasn’t really getting that late at all. The clock didn’t even show midnight yet, and I was already in bed.
I grew up a dedicated night owl, staying up until the wee hours of the morning, always consuming sports — the grandest entertainment of them all. But back in 2015, I had a long-term girlfriend who I lived with and a 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. job. I wasn’t much of a night owl back then.
On this particular Friday night, I had convinced Bae to watch some NBA basketball.
More specifically, I convinced her to watch the Sacramento Kings vs. Golden State Warriors game because:
A. We were getting a free preview of NBA League Pass that week.
B. I had Steph Curry on my fantasy basketball team.
C. My opponent that week also just so happened to have one Klay Thompson.
A compromise with Bae was that we would be watching the second half in bed, you know, because it was getting late and all. Funny thing was: I was actually tired and ready for bed myself. I really wasn’t much of a night owl back then.
Neither Steph nor Klay was having a tremendous game by any means. As we got into bed at halftime, Klay had 13 points while Steph had 8. It seemed like a normal game…
The Warriors were good, but this was before they were The Warriors — and I was thinking more about the big, cozy blanket that was out because it was peak winter. (Was winter cold where you lived in 2015?)
A forgotten footnote in history, the Kings actually started the 3rd quarter on a 7-0 run to take the lead 58-56.
Then Steph made two free throws to tie the game at 58. What I didn’t know at the time was that those would be Steph’s last points of the game. (The 10 points Steph scored that night were his 3rd fewest of that entire season.)
The next four possessions were filled with missed jumpers and turnovers that were seriously lulling me to sleep. I figured it wouldn’t be much longer until I slipped all the way into a deep slumber and Bae would subsequently change the channel, putting on another re-run of The Middle. So I was sleepy and almost drifting off completely when it happened.
Sometimes life’s great moments come out of nowhere when you least expect them.
Klay hit a short jumper, followed by a transition 3. I didn’t think much of it, my eyes literally closed trying to sleep — but I heard them.
Then Klay hit another transition 3, and it was the way that play-by-play announcer Bob Fitzgerald delivered the “Yes, sir!” in addition to how loud the crowd was getting at Oracle Arena that made me become more aware despite being so s l e e p y.
“Dammit. Back-to-back 3s for Klay,” I said with my eyes still closed.
Bae didn’t respond, and I wondered if the game had put her to sleep as well.
Then I heard the Warriors in transition again, Bob Fitzgerald on the call: “Two on one. Lob. Oh! Right-handed hammer.” That’s when Bae laughed, which told me that A. she was still up and B. Klay Thompson was the dunker on that alley-oop.
“Oh, you’re still up,” I said.
“Yeah, I’m cheering for Klay cause I need your team to lose,” Bae replied. (Her fantasy basketball team, Deng Girl!, was tied for 1st place with mine, Wake and Blake.)
“Very funny. Tell me how many he gets. I’m going to sleep,” I said.
But on the next Warriors possession, Klay swished yet another 3-pointer. “Oh, Klay Thompson is feeling it, absolutely feeling it!” Bob Fitzgerald announced with glee.
I was perplexed. “What is going on?” My eyes were open now to check things out, and I saw that Bae was, of course, playing Angry Birds on her phone, but she took the time to stop and greet me with a big smile that told me she was enjoying this Klay heat check a little too much.
Then to my dismay, Klay Thompson drilled another 3, this time a deep 28-footer right in front of my eyes. I couldn’t help but let out a natural “What the fuck!?” while Bae laughed some more.
Klay Thompson was a perfect 6-for-6 with four 3-pointers in the 3rd quarter. The Warriors bench was up and celebrating in giddy unison. Most of Oracle Arena was standing as well, starting to get pretty rowdy in there. One of the fans in the front row was bowing down over and over in Klay’s direction.
Klay had 16 points in the quarter, and there was still five minutes left!
What none of us knew at the time was that Klay Thompson wasn’t even halfway there.
“I thought you were going to bed?” Bae asked, sarcastic as hell.
I was definitely up now, watching, wondering. There are heat checks and there are HEAT CHECKS. This one already felt nuclear, and for my fantasy basketball matchup, I needed it to stop…
Right on cue, curling around a pin-down screen from Draymond, Klay caught a pass, turned and fired up a 3 all in one motion. Splash.
A minute later, he curled around a screen from David Lee and fired up another 3. He didn’t drain this one, but he got the shooter’s bounce with the ball hitting the front of the rim, softly bouncing up and off the backboard before falling right through the hoop. “When you’re hot, you get the shooter’s roll,” Warriors color commentator Jim Barnett said, which I could barely hear over Bae’s laughter. I was shaking my head like the Alonzo Mourning gif.
Then Draymond brought the ball down the court and passed the rock back to Klay. He put it on the floor this time, driving left, all the way to the basket for a lay-up with four Kings defenders around him.
“A 24-point quarter,” Jim Barnett said casually.
“A 24-point quarter!?” I yelled in disbelief. I couldn’t believe it, and Bae couldn’t stop laughing.
Steph stole the ball on Sacramento’s next possession and immediately looked for Klay, keeping his eyes locked on him the entire time he dribbled down the court. After he passed halfcourt, Steph slung over a lefty scoop pass to Klay who wasn’t even fully set when he fired up and SPLASHED home his seventh 3-pointer of the third quarter.
“YES, SIR!” Bob Fitzgerald shouted, much louder than the “Yes, sir!” that originally woke me up five Klay three-pointers ago.
I was incredulous. Stunned. Shocked. Elated! Oracle was going bonkers. We all were.
Klay was smiling and even broke out a subtle version of Sam Cassell’s big-balls dance! It was Klay’s ninth 3 of the game, a new career-high. He had 40 points, one away from a new career-best.
I had never seen anything like it. This dude was more on fire than fire itself. Bae wasn’t even playing Angry Birds anymore. She was still rather new to sports, but it was easy for her to see that this was something truly special.
After a Kings miss, David Lee grabbed the rebound and didn’t even pass it to Steph, he passed it directly to Klay.
Klay brought the ball up the court and everybody at Oracle was on their feet, buzzing with anticipation. Klay waved off Draymond who set a high-screen anyway. Klay dribbled down past multiple Kings defenders that were swarming him like fruit flies around a banana. He pulled up at the right elbow and cashed in a no-doubt midrange jumper, sending the fans into another f r e n z y.
Klay himself was FIRED up, fist-pumping and yelling. A new career-high 42 points. “He’s outscored the Kings 29-19 in this 3rd quarter!” Jim Barnett called out.
“THIS IS INSANE!” I screamed while pacing around the room, awake now like I had just chugged several Red Bulls. Bae said her sides hurt from laughing so much, her laugh competing with the roar of Oracle after each make.
Steph brought the ball up in transition, and there wasn’t a single soul in the building or watching at home that didn’t know exactly where the ball was going. Off the ball, Klay darted to the corner and fake-cut to the baseline before quickly backing up to the three-point line. Steph passed it over to Klay and went to set a screen for him, but Klay didn’t need it. He also didn’t even need to be set again to send up another 3...
SPLASH.
“Have you ever seen anything like it?!” Bob Fitzgerald yelled amidst his own laughter, losing his mind more and more.
“NO WAY!!!” Bae and I were freaking out. I kept asking her if this was a dream. She grabbed my ass to assure me it was not.
Klay was smirking and shaking his head, knowing that on this random Friday night in January: he was untouchable. Everybody was laughing. Klay pounded his chest. He let out “Wooo!” a couple of times. I can’t emphasize this enough: everybody was laughing, smiling and feeling some type of way that we hadn’t felt before. A grand exhilaration mixed with awe and magic.
Bae and I were sitting on the edge of the bed now, jaws on the floor in bewilderment, eyes wide in splendid wonder. Bae kept looking at me and smiling so very big, knowing that I was going through something catastrophic.
Out of all the thousands and thousands of games I watched growing up as a kid, I never saw anything close to what we were witnessing that night. And the craziest part was how random it was that I was even watching this game at all. A free League Pass preview. The fantasy basketball matchup. Convincing Bae. I almost fell asleep and missed it!
But I was there and saw it go down. I was playing against him in fantasy basketball! But I wasn’t mad in the least. How could I be? Fuck fantasy basketball, I thought. This is historic, the best basketball I’ve ever seen, I told Bae about a hundred times. A flame-thrower of epic proportions. A flame-thrower that might never be topped.
My mind was blown. I was inspired and motivated. Captivated and shocked.
There was still one minute left in the 3rd quarter.
The Warriors set up a play for Klay, because of course they did.
Klay dashed up through the elevator doors screens, caught the pass at the top of the key, set and fired away another 3…
SPLASH.
Bob Fitzgerald yelled, “GOOD!” amongst more of his own laughter as the madness escalated once again, everybody thrown into a ridiculous TIZZY, somehow more drastic than the last. It felt like the roof might fly off the top of Oracle Arena, and the same went for our bedroom. Bae and I were jumping up and down now, high-fiving and yelling, hugging and making out. All while laughing hysterically like a bunch of loonies.
Klay closed the quarter with two free throws and Bob Fitzgerald said the magical words:
“Well, if you’re wondering what the NBA record is for most points in a quarter, you just watched it!”
37 points in one quarter. The most points in a quarter EVER. A perfect 13-for-13 shooting and an NBA record nine 3-pointers in one. single. quarter. Klay’s previous career-high for 3-pointers was eight for an entire game.
It was quite literally the most historic and flawlessly perfect quarter of basketball you could ever possibly watch.
As Klay Thompson returns for his first game in over 940 days since that fateful night against Toronto when he tore his ACL in Game 6 of The 2019 Finals, I had to take a look back at this pivotal moment in my life.
When I think of that random Friday night in January 2015 now, and as I penned these words, I can still palpably feel the wave of euphoria and the rush of inspiration coursing through my veins. The goosebumps return, almost as fierce as they were seven years ago.
I was still a basketball fan at this point, but watching Klay erupt for the most points scored in one quarter in NBA history made me want to go back to being a basketball STAN. A basketball Stan that didn’t miss any of the unbelievable moments like this.
One of the best parts of watching the NBA and sports in general is the grand unpredictability of it all. You never know when something incredible will happen. You never know when you will witness game-changing history. “When will Amazing happen next?”
Klay’s 3rd quarter was a grand culmination of all that to the highest degree. And from then on, I had a burning desire to be there watching, to always be watching and ready.
My dream job was becoming a sports writer after all. After that game, I went back to chasing my dream.
Seven years later, I’m an NBA writer. Always watching, always ready.
And I just wanna say:
THANK YOU, KLAY.
Welcome back, old friend.
P.S. — You’re top-75 in my book!
