ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — Klay Thompson‘s recent back-to-back performances (against the Mavs, then the Sixers, came with a glaring caveat: one assist.
“Such a ballhog,” quipped Stephen Curry.
At least Thompson was the first to notice that lonely assist on the boxscore.
“He was the first one to comment about that,” added Curry. “So he had a great night. Obviously, he wanted to do some other stuff but we needed all those point to get this win tonight.”
“I think you gotta try to do that,” joked Draymond Green. “You can’t make a mistake and get an assist?”
Consecutive 40-point games isn’t an easy feat. It’s not even well-documented. A Google search on “back-to-back 40 point games NBA” yields as its first result an online quiz in which 168 participants have failed to list all the players that have done it.
Warriors fans are all-too-familiar with Antawn Jamison, so let’s check there first.
Nope, Jamison had two assists, then five, on those back-to-back 51-point performances in 2000-01. Still too embarrassing for Klay.
Probable Hall-of-Famer (official vote/announcement in one week at the Final Four) Allen Iverson had a five-game 40-point streak in his rookie season. His assist totals, though, were eight, nine, nine, six, and five during the stretch.
Apparently, Iverson made plenty of “mistakes” during that run.
Okay, let’s look around some more. Michael Jordan averaged 4.0 assists per game during his nine-game 40-point streak in 1986-87 — not surprising.
But Kobe Bryant tied that streak in 2003 and on February 19th and 21st, he tallied just one assist on each of those nights.
In 2007, Bryant had a string of four straight fifty-point games. On the fourth of those, he had 50 points and one assist, then two nights later, 43 points and — drum roll — zero assists!
Proof in the pudding that Klay’s performance was Kobe-esque.
All kidding aside, no one outside of Thompson himself is complaining about his assists. Moreover, no one is apologizing for his ice-cold sniper’s approach to drilling shots.
“The way he’s shooting the ball right now, it’s been amazing,” said Green. “We’re not forcing him the ball. We’re not just running down, looking for Klay. He’s getting his stuff in the flow of the offense. Obviously, Klay’s gonna take a couple questionable ones, but hey, that’s why he’s the shooter that he is.”
Thompson’s not dwelling on the point-to-assist ratio, either.
“I don’t think that’s ever been done, but law of averages,” said Thompson. “It’ll balance out.”
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