{"id":769909,"date":"2023-01-03T12:28:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-03T17:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/?p=769909"},"modified":"2023-01-03T15:46:10","modified_gmt":"2023-01-03T20:46:10","slug":"steve-kerrcallsklaythompson-incredible-after-54-point-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/news\/nba\/steve-kerrcallsklaythompson-incredible-after-54-point-performance\/","title":{"rendered":"Steve Kerr Calls Klay Thompson &#8216;Incredible&#8217; After 54-Point Performance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/?s=Klay+Thompson\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/?s=Klay+Thompson\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Klay Thompson<\/a> is still playing to get back to his peak abilities during Golden State&#8217;s infamous 2019 Finals run that led to Thompson suffering back-to-back devastating injuries that prevented him from playing for more than two seasons. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00a0The five-time All-Star showed he&#8217;s another step closer to reaching those peak performances after dropping 54 points on 21-39 shooting from the field, 10-21 from the three-point line, leading the Warriors to a 143-141 double-overtime against the Hawks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a huge accomplishment for me,&#8221; Thompson said <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/story\/_\/id\/35369585\/klay-thompson-scores-season-high-54-fuel-warriors-2ot-win\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/story\/_\/id\/35369585\/klay-thompson-scores-season-high-54-fuel-warriors-2ot-win\" target=\"_blank\">per ESPN<\/a>. &#8220;There were some hard days for me when I didn&#8217;t know that this would be possible in real-time. I am just going to embrace the heck out of it.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Klay in the Warriors 2-OT win!<br><br>54 PTS<br>7 REB<br>10 threes <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/CdOB2SqCaT\">pic.twitter.com\/CdOB2SqCaT<\/a><\/p>\u2014 NBA (@NBA) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NBA\/status\/1610272265739845632?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 3, 2023<\/a><\/blockquote> <script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n\n\n\n<p>The 54-point outing was his biggest scoring out since his career-best 60-point performance in three quarters on Dec. 5, 2016, against the Indiana Pacers. It was Thompson&#8217;s fourth career 50-point game and his seventh with at least 10 3s<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;He just made shot after shot and play after play. He was incredible,&#8221; Golden State coach Steve Kerr said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After a prime-time performance like that, Thompson\u2019s confidence will likely be at an all-time high. It\u2019s the type of performance that can also set up some great things in 2023. Great news for a team looking to reverse their fortunes and make a run for a higher seed in the playoffs. However, teammate <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/?s=Draymond+Green\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/?s=Draymond+Green\" target=\"_blank\">Draymond<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/?s=Draymond+Green\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/?s=Draymond+Green\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> <\/a><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/?s=Draymond+Green\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/?s=Draymond+Green\" target=\"_blank\">Green<\/a> doesn&#8217;t want Thompson to not place too much pressure on himself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;You don&#8217;t have to be the same Klay that you once were before,&#8221; Green said. &#8220;When you understand that, and you buy into that, then you become the Klay you were before.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;When you&#8217;re as competitive as he is when you&#8217;re as good as he is, it&#8217;s tough sometimes,&#8221; Green said. &#8220;For two years, everybody is doubting you. That same fire toward that doubt is what made you, Klay Thompson \u2014 you don&#8217;t just lose that. That is embedded in you. It&#8217;s good to see him settle down. He&#8217;s not chasing it anymore, and it&#8217;s falling right in his lap. When you are that good, that&#8217;s usually what happens.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Fourth career 50-point game.<br>Klay Thompson balled out last night.<br><br>\u00bb <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ocDF2EHeJH\">https:\/\/t.co\/ocDF2EHeJH<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/anzqUguZj1\">pic.twitter.com\/anzqUguZj1<\/a><\/p>&mdash; VoteDraymond4AllStar (@warriors) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/warriors\/status\/1610331503300587520?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 3, 2023<\/a><\/blockquote> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n\n\n\n<p>Thompson says he&#8217;s in a place now than at the start of the season. The 32-year-old sharpshooter told reporters that wanting to prove everyone wrong was a disservice to himself, and now he has to remind himself that playing for the Warriors &#8220;is a dream&#8221; and that he&#8217;s shifted his mindset to &#8220;having fun and playing hard.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I have to remind myself daily that [playing for the Warriors] is literally the dream. What matters most is having fun and playing hard. All the numbers, all the big nights will come as long as I do those two things.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Warriors and Klay Thompson will play the Pistons on Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Klay Thompson is still playing to get back to his peak abilities during Golden State&#8217;s infamous 2019 Finals run that led to Thompson suffering back-to-back devastating injuries that prevented him from playing for more than two seasons. \u00a0The five-time All-Star showed he&#8217;s another step closer to reaching those peak performances after dropping 54 points on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":447,"featured_media":769910,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62702,18,63826,62493],"tags":[5987,116,1707],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-769909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-golden-state-warriors","category-nba","category-news","category-newswire","tag-draymond-green","tag-golden-state-warriors","tag-klay-thompson"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/447"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=769909"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":769933,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769909\/revisions\/769933"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/769910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=769909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=769909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=769909"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=769909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}