Most Points in a Quarter (NBA)

Klay Thompson scored 37 points in a single quarter for the Golden State Warriors against the Sacramento Kings on January 23, 2015, the most points in one quarter in NBA history. He made all 13 of his field-goal attempts, including nine three-pointers, in a third quarter still regarded as the greatest shooting display the sport has seen.

A quarter is only 12 minutes long, which makes a 30-point period one of basketball’s rarest feats. Below is the full, verified leaderboard of the highest-scoring quarters in NBA history, the stories behind the top entries, and why the record has held up through the 2025-26 season.

The full leaderboard of the highest-scoring quarters

Rank	Points	Player	Quarter	Date	Opponent
1	37	Klay Thompson	3rd	Jan 23, 2015	Sacramento Kings
2	34	Kevin Love	1st	Nov 23, 2016	Portland Trail Blazers
3	33	George Gervin	2nd	Apr 9, 1978	New Orleans Jazz
3	33	Carmelo Anthony	3rd	Dec 10, 2008	Minnesota Timberwolves
5	32	Karl-Anthony Towns	3rd	Mar 14, 2022	San Antonio Spurs
5	32	David Thompson	1st	Apr 9, 1978	Detroit Pistons
7	29	Joel Embiid	3rd	Nov 6, 2023	Washington Wizards
7	29	James Harden	3rd	Nov 30, 2019	Atlanta Hawks
7	29	Isaiah Thomas	4th	Dec 30, 2016	Miami Heat
10	28	Devin Booker	4th	Mar 24, 2017	Boston Celtics

Only two players in NBA history have ever cleared 33 points in a single quarter. Everyone else on this list, including three All-Stars from the last decade, tops out in the 28-to-32 range, which shows just how large a gap Thompson’s 37 really is.

The record holder: Klay Thompson’s perfect 37

Thompson’s third quarter against Sacramento was mathematically flawless. He attempted 13 shots and made all 13, drained all nine of his three-pointers, and added two free throws, for 37 points in a single period. The Warriors, already a rising power, watched their sharpshooter turn a competitive game into a rout in the space of 12 minutes.

What sets the performance apart is not just the total but the efficiency. Scoring 37 in a quarter would be remarkable at any shooting percentage; doing it without a single miss is why the game is considered untouchable, even in an era of high-volume three-point shooting.

Kevin Love’s 34 and the two 33-point quarters

Kevin Love’s 34-point first quarter against Portland in November 2016 is the second-best on record and, like Thompson’s, was fueled by three-point shooting; Love hit eight from deep in the period.

Behind Love sit two 33-point quarters separated by three decades. George Gervin’s came during his famous 63-point game on the final day of the 1977-78 season, when he needed a huge afternoon to overtake David Thompson for the scoring title and got there with 33 points in the second quarter. Carmelo Anthony’s matching 33-point third quarter for Denver in 2008 came in a similar burst against Minnesota, catching fire and simply not missing.

The Gervin-Thompson double, and the modern challengers

The most remarkable coincidence on this leaderboard is that ranks 3 and 5 both trace back to a single afternoon: April 9, 1978. David Thompson opened that day with 32 points in the first quarter alone, on his way to 73 for the game, trying to force the season scoring title out of Gervin’s hands. Gervin answered hours later with his 33-point second quarter and won the title by a few hundredths of a point per game, one of the tightest scoring races in league history.

The three-point era has produced its own cluster near the bottom of the top 10. Karl-Anthony Towns’ 32-point third quarter came during his 60-point outburst against San Antonio in 2022. Joel Embiid (29, 2023) and James Harden (29, 2019) each strung together similar third-quarter explosions on their way to 40-plus-point games, and Isaiah Thomas’ 29-point fourth quarter against Miami in 2016, part of a 52-point night, remains the standing record for any fourth quarter specifically.

What it takes to reach the 30-point tier

Scoring 30 in a single quarter is so rare that only six players in NBA history have done it. Each needed the same conditions: an opponent that could not double-team, a hot streak spanning most of the 12 minutes, and enough possessions to keep getting shots up. These are not slow accumulations but sudden, concentrated explosions, one player commandeering an entire period.

Why the record stands, and could it fall in 2026?

Reaching 37 in 12 minutes demands a hot shooter, a defense that cannot adjust, and enough possessions to convert, plus the accuracy to make every attempt. That combination is so unlikely that the record has survived a decade of the highest-scoring, most three-point-heavy offenses in league history.

The chase is real, though. Towns, Embiid, and Harden have all cracked 28-plus in a single quarter since 2019, proof that pace-and-space offenses can generate the volume Thompson needed. What none has matched is the perfection: Thompson missed nothing. Until a challenger pairs a 35-plus-point quarter with similarly flawless shooting, the record figures to hold through 2026 and likely well beyond it.

Single-quarter outbursts are the building blocks of the biggest scoring nights, like those on our most points in a single NBA game leaderboard, and they can flip a close contest into the kind of rout that features on our biggest blowout in NBA history list. The players capable of them tend to be the same names near the top of the most points in NBA history rankings.

The short version: Klay Thompson scored 37 points in the third quarter against Sacramento on January 23, 2015, for the most points in a single NBA quarter, going a perfect 13-of-13 from the field. Kevin Love’s 34 in 2016 is second, George Gervin and Carmelo Anthony are tied at 33, and Karl-Anthony Towns and David Thompson share fifth at 32, verified through the 2025-26 season.