Getty/Ezra Shaw Golden State Warriors' coach Steve Kerr greets his players during a timeout against the Charlotte Hornets.
In the fourth quarter against the LA Lakers, the Warriors looked like they were about to lose their third straight game. The offense got stagnant and the defense had allowed a struggling Lakers team to go up by six with 3:47 to go.
Klay Thompson had other ideas.
He knocked down back-to-back threes to tie it, and the team got that extra boost it needed to go on to win the game. Thompson went bonkers in the final quarter, and scored 16 points in the final 12 minutes. He finished the contest with 33 points on 12 of 22 shooting, including five triples.
Klay delivered against the Lakers 💪
33 PTS for the game & 16 PTS in the 4th quarter
As he’s been acclimated to watching the Splash Brothers catch fire over the years, head coach Steve Kerr was not too surprised with the outburst. After the game he told reporters that it was a familiar feeling.
“Yeah, you can probably feel it too. We’ve been around Klay for so long. I don’t know if its two in a row, three in a row, but he just has a look on his face, a bounce in his step…You can feel it coming.”
As we’ve all grown accustomed to Thompson’s shooting, it has been so long since we last saw his shoot it lights out. The last time Thompson scored over 30 points was back on March of 2019 in Houston. Kerr points out that Thompson is a great shooter, but he has intangibles like giving the crowd or even his teammates the confidence to bring their games to the next level.
“Because the crowd has seen it so many times, for it to happen now after that two-and half-year layoff. As much as everyone loves Klay back then, they love him even more now, because they know what he’s been through. To see him ignite, to see the crowd getting so into it, his teammates, Klay is special, it goes beyond making shots, he brings an electricity to the building that’s hard to quantify.”
Warriors Badly Miss Draymond Green
The 2017 Defensive Player of the Year still does not have an official timetable to return, but he did say he wanted to return sometime during the start of March. The Warriors have been treading water ever since he went down in early January, and the team dynamic has not been the same without him.
The Warriors have gone through countless scoring droughts lately. Whenever Curry has an off night, teammates have not always picked up the slack, and the team has lost several games that they could have easily won. Luckily against the Lakers, Thompson took the keys to the car and singlehandedly willed the Warriors to the win in the fourth quarter.
Kerr talked about how the loss of Green has negatively impacted the team after Thursday’s home loss to the Knicks, and how the offensive has sputtered without him initiating the offense.
“Without Draymond the last few weeks, our pace is near the bottom of the league. We have not been a very good transition team now for several weeks. We’ve been just relying on 3-point shooting, and we’ve done a good job of making shots to win games, but you’re not going to make them all the time
Without their defensive stalwart, the team is 13-9 this season, with an overall record of 42-15. Once he returns, the team is hoping he can unlock the rhythm on both sides of the ball, hence leading to more consistent play.