Klay Thompson’s 37-Point Quarter: The Record and the Shots Behind It

Klay Thompson holds the NBA record for most points by a player in one quarter: 37, as of October 11, 2026. He scored them in the third quarter for the Golden State Warriors against the Sacramento Kings on January 23, 2015, during the 2014–15 regular season. Golden State won 126–101, and Thompson finished with 52 points. The NBA’s historical record confirms the performance.

A quarter record counts only one period, not any rolling 12-minute stretch across quarter boundaries. The individual playoff record and the team scoring record are separate marks, covered below.

How Thompson scored 37 points without missing

Thompson played all 12 minutes of the third quarter and made every official shot he attempted: 13-for-13 from the field, 9-for-9 from three-point range and 2-for-2 at the free-throw line, according to the official third-quarter scorer’s report.

The arithmetic is (4 × 2) + (9 × 3) + 2 = 37. The nine threes are included in his 13 field goals—not added on top of them.

His first basket of the quarter came more than two minutes into the period. All 37 points therefore arrived in less than 10 minutes of game clock, even though his quarter playing time was 12 minutes. He scored 18 points in the final 3:03 alone. Golden State’s retrospective details that sequence.

Why this was more than a high-volume quarter

A scoring total depends on opportunities, who takes the shots and how efficiently those shots become points. Thompson’s quarter combined a concentrated offensive role with perfect conversion.

The Warriors attempted 20 field goals in the period; Thompson took 13. That is 65% of the team’s field-goal attempts, calculated from the official quarter box score. He also supplied 37 of Golden State’s 41 points—90.2%—while Sacramento scored 22. Those percentages describe his share of the quarter’s shots and scoring, not his usage rate or points per possession. Official quarter box score

Shot value matters, too. Nine of his 13 baskets were threes. Had those same nine makes been worth two points, his total would have been 28 rather than 37. That is an illustration of the three-point bonus, not an era-adjusted estimate of what he would have scored under different rules.

The previous record—and Kevin Love’s 34

Thompson broke the previous record of 33 points, set by George Gervin in 1978 and matched by Carmelo Anthony in 2008. The contemporary game report identifies both previous holders.

The era distinction is important: Gervin’s performance came before the NBA adopted the three-point shot for the 1979–80 season. The raw points record is still directly comparable as a scoring total, but the available ways to produce those points were different.

Kevin Love later scored 34 in the first quarter for Cleveland against Portland on November 23, 2016. He shot 11-for-14 overall, including 8-for-10 on threes. That established a first-quarter record but fell three points short of Thompson’s any-quarter mark. Associated Press report

Playoff and team quarter records

Individual playoff record: Sleepy Floyd, 29 points. Floyd scored 29 in the fourth quarter against the Lakers on May 10, 1987, in Game 4 of the Western Conference semifinals. He finished with 51 points as Golden State won 129–121. NBA historical record

Team record: Buffalo Braves, 58 points. Buffalo scored 58 in the fourth quarter at Boston on October 20, 1972, during the regular season. Guinness World Records lists it as the team quarter mark. The NBA game linescore confirms Buffalo outscored Boston 58–23 in that period—but still lost 126–118 after trailing 103–60 through three quarters.

For a longer scoring window, see the separate NBA points-in-a-half records.