NBA

The 7 Best NBA Performances From Last Week: Klay's 60-Burger

It's hard to imagine, but could anyone top Klay Thompson's historic Monday night?

During the course of an NBA season, we see countless standout performances. For each week, we get quite a few. We get them almost on a nightly basis.

But, which were the best of the best -- or the perfect ones?

In case you're not aware, numberFire Live is our very own platform that tracks each NBA game, its win probability, and player performances -- among many other features. Here, we focus on the player performances in order to find the best ones of the week.

Each player performance is rated on a scale of 1 to 100, according to production and efficiency. We are concerned only with 100 scores here.

The lone seven perfect games from the past week are listed in order of their nERD (a measure of a player's total contribution, based on efficiency) for the given games, from least to greatest.

7. Norman Powell vs. Boston Celtics

On Friday night, Norman Powell received a spot start against the Boston Celtics in place of usual starter DeMarre Carroll, who got the night off to rest. Powell made sure to take advantage of the opportunity, turning in the best game of his career thus far. With 20 points on 7 for 10 from the field, including 3 of 4 from deep, the former UCLA standout accounted for an offensive rating of 173.9 and a 50.12 nERD. He even added his usual defensive contributions with 5 steals and a team-low defensive rating of 89.4.

6. Serge Ibaka vs. Detroit Pistons

It's been an up-and-down first season in Orlando for Serge Ibaka. But, last Sunday's game against the Detroit Pistons was, without a doubt, one of the ups. In 34 minutes of play, the big man produced 21 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists. His 21 points came on just 11 total attempts, as Ibaka racked up a true shooting percentage of 88.4%, with 2 threes on 4 tries. He finished the game with a nERD of 50.24 -- 38.73 higher than any other Magic player.

5. Kevin Love vs. Miami Heat

Kevin Love entered Friday's game as a game-time decision due to back spasms. In a matchup with a struggling Miami Heat team, no one would have blamed head coach Tyron Lue for sitting him down for precautionary reasons. So, naturally, this should've been a game full of LeBron James and Kyrie Irving. Love didn't just suit up, though -- he showed out.


We should be getting used to big first halves from Love by now. In this one, back issues and all, he put up 18 points and 9 boards in the first half alone. He finished the Cavaliers' 30-point win with 28 points, 15 rebounds, and a nERD of 51.07.

4. Kyle Lowry vs. Boston Celtics

The aforementioned Norman Powell wasn't the only Toronto Raptor to have an uber-efficient performance Friday night. Kyle Lowry got in on the fun, too.

In earning his nERD of 59.76, the Raptors' point guard amassed 34 points on a usage rate of 31.5% and 3 steals on a defensive rating of 93.6. He went 4 of 8 from three-point land and 12 of 13 from the free-throw line. Why wouldn't you feed this guy the ball?

3. Kawhi Leonard vs. Minnesota Timberwolves

Kawhi Leonard had a great start to this NBA season, but he's cooled off a bit lately. That was until this past week when he dropped 31 points on the Minnesota Timberwolves in a 105-91 Spurs win. He was ultra-efficient, converting on 11 of his 15 field goal attempts -- 2 which came from behind the three-point line -- and 7 out of 8 from the charity stripe. That makes for a true shooting of 83.7%, an offensive rating of 160.6, and a nERD of 62.57.

2. LeBron James vs. Charlotte Hornets

It's not unusual for LeBron to make this list from week-to-week. However, the manner in which he placed himself on it this week was a little out of the norm. He, in 42 minutes, scored 44 points on 24 attempts with 5 three-point makes and a true shooting of 78.7%. It was one of those nights where James' jumper was on, and when that's the case, he's unstoppable. But, even though he was scoring at will, he still dished out 10 assists and grabbed 9 rebounds as he ended the game with a nERD of 62.65.

1. Klay Thompson vs. Indiana Pacers

There was quite a selection of great performances this week, but there were none -- not one -- quite like Klay Thompson's historic Monday night. In the Golden State Warriors' 142-106 shellacking of the Indiana Pacers, the Splash Brother splashed home 60 points despite playing merely 29 minutes and possessing the ball for fewer than 90 seconds on made buckets. He shot to a true shooting percentage of 79.3% and earned a nERD of 64.31.

Here's exactly how that type of an insane performance looks.