Golden State Warriors guard Klay Thompson will look to defend his crown in the Three-Point Contest on All-Star Saturday Night in New Orleans on February 18, the league announced today. Thompson, who won the event last year with a record-tying score of 27 in the final round, will participate in the contest for the third-straight season.
Thompson’s Three-Point title defense will mark the fifth-straight year that the Warriors have had at least one player in the Three-Point Contest, with Stephen Curry edging out Thompson for the title in 2015. Following Thompson’s win in 2016, the Warriors became the only team to have two different players win the contest in consecutive years. The Warriors will have a participant in the event for the ninth time since its inception in 1986, including seven of the last eight years.
Warriors Three-Point Contest Participants
Thompson, who will make his third career All-Star appearance, owns averages of 21.3 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.0 assists in 34.1 minutes over 48 games (all starts) this season. The Washington State product ranks fifth in the league with 149 three-point field goals and is hitting better than 40 percent of his three-point attempts (.403) for the sixth-straight season. Thompson scored a career-best and NBA season-high 60 points on Dec. 5 vs. Indiana, joining Wilt Chamberlain, Rick Barry and Joe Fulks as the only players in franchise history to reach the 60-point plateau. The 6’7” guard scored 40 of his 60 points in the first half alone and became the first player in the Shot Clock Era (since 1954-55) to score 60 points in a game despite playing fewer than 30 minutes (29:03).
Thompson will join Curry, Kevin Durant and Draymond Green on the Western Conference All-Star team, marking the eighth time in NBA history that a single team will have four players appear in the All-Star Game. In addition to the team’s NBA-record-tying four All-Stars, Warriors Head Coach Steve Kerr and his staff will coach the Western Conference for the second time in three seasons. The Warriors own an NBA-best record of 42-7 (.857) this season, which is tied for the fifth-best record through 49 games in NBA history.
Thompson is joined in the Three-Point Contest by Houston’s Eric Gordon, Cleveland’s Kyrie Irving, Toronto’s Kyle Lowry, Dallas’ Wesley Matthews, Portland’s C.J. McCollum, Charlotte’s Kemba Walker, and the L.A. Lakers’ Nick Young.
State Farm All-Star Saturday Night will be exclusively televised by TNT on Saturday, Feb. 18, at 4:30 p.m. PST. The 66th NBA All-Star Game will tip-off on Sunday, Feb. 19 at Smoothie King Center in New Orleans.