Warriors guard Klay Thompson has been named the NBA Western Conference Player of the Week for games played Tuesday, Oct. 28, through Sunday, Nov. 2, the NBA announced today.
In three games last week, Thompson averaged a league-leading 29.7 points to go with 3.0 assists, 2.7 rebounds and 1.67 steals in 35.3 minutes, hitting 53.7 percent from the field, 45.5 percent from three-point range and 91.3 percent from the free throw line. The fourth-year guard helped the Warriors to a 3-0 record, giving the franchise its first 3-0 start to a season for the first time in 20 years (1994-95).
Thompson’s week was highlighted by a career-high 41-point game in the home opener against the Lakers on Nov. 1 in which he hit 14-of-18 from the field, becoming the first player to score 40-plus points on 75 percent-or-better from the field since Paul Pierce in 2012. He followed that performance with a 29-point effort on Nov. 2 at Portland that included hitting the go-ahead bucket with 8.9 seconds to play, giving the Warriors a 91-90 advantage in the eventual 95-90 victory and marking the first time in his career that he’s posted consecutive games of at least 29 points. In the season opener in Sacramento on Oct. 29, Thompson set career highs with nine free throws on 10 attempts, finishing with 19 points and six assists in the 18-point win.
In the home opener, Thompson and backcourt mate Stephen Curry combined to score 72 points on 37 field goal attempts, becoming the first starting backcourt tandem to score that many points on 37 attempts-or-fewer since the NBA began tracking starters in the box score in 1970-71. With 10 three-pointers during the week, Thompson moved past Latrell Sprewell for fifth place on the team’s all-time threes list, now totaling 555 career three-pointers with the Warriors.
The award is the first career weekly honor for Thompson, who signed a multi-year contract extension with the Warriors on Oct. 31. It marks the 32nd time a Warriors player has been named Player of the Week since the NBA began giving out the award in 1979, making Thompson the franchise’s 17th different player to earn the accolade. The Washington State product is the first Warrior to receive the award in the season’s opening week since Tim Hardaway in 1994, when the Warriors began the year with a 5-0 mark.
Miami’s Chris Bosh earned Player of the Week honors in the Eastern Conference.