Getty Golden State Warriors star Klay Thompson exits the court following a double-OT win over the Atlanta Hawks.
After a handful of rough shooting performances — his 4-for-17 night against the Sixers on December 16 and an 8-for-25 effort on Christmas Day come to mind — Golden State Warriors star Klay Thompson has elevated his game recently. However, he reached a whole new level during Monday’s double-OT win over the Hawks.
In 46 minutes of action — his highest single-game workload since 2016 — Thompson scored a season-high 54 points on 21-of-39 shooting. He also hit 10 threes, added eight boards and three assists and was a game-high plus-13 in the plus/minus department.
While Kevon Looney’s buzzer-beating tip-in sealed the result, there’s no doubt that Klay’s night was the thing that made the win (Golden State’s sixth in a row) possible.
Following the contest, Thompson shouted out a Hall of Fame Hawks alum for the role he played in inspiring the Dubs wing to show out.
Klay Thompson Gives Credit to Dominique Wilkins
Thompson has made it clear that he relishes every chance he gets to play in the wake of the ACL tear and the ruptured Achilles that combined to cost him two and a half seasons. But this game was extra special, and he gave some of the credit for it to Hawks legend Dominique Wilkins, who he spoke to before tip-off.
“Just seeing Dominique Wilkins before the game, talking to him, telling him how much of an inspiration he was to me coming back from an Achilles [tear] to average in the high 20s after a decade of playing. That inspired me to be myself,” Thompson said.
“There were some hard days for me when I didn’t know this would be possible. To live it real-time, I’m just going to embrace the heck out of it.”
Wilkins, now a Hawks commentator at age 62, famously ruptured his Achilles during the 1991-92 campaign and, somehow, he was able to return the following season as a 29.9 PPG scorer and an All-Star selection.
Thompson has made it clear, on multiple occasions now, that ‘Nique’s journey affected his own in a major way.
“For Dominique to seek me out and give me that inspiration, that meant a whole lot to me,” Thompson said in June, via ESPN. “His highlights and reels are timeless. There’s still not a lot of people who can jump like that in today’s NBA. For him to go through what he did and win a EuroLeague Cup and be an All-Star again, it just gave me so much hope to just stick with the plan.”
Klay Acknowledges Damar Hamlin
The whole of the sports world was brought to a standstill on Monday night when Buffalo Bills DB Damar Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest after making an open-field tackle on wideout Tee Higgins during a game against the Cincinnati Bengals.
The 24-year-old collapsed in the aftermath of the play and CPR was administered on the field — which was followed by defibrillation — before he was taken to a local hospital. As of this writing, he remains in the ICU.
While addressing the media after the Warriors’ win, Thompson said the following about the incident:
“I just wanted to send my condolences to Mr. Hamlin of the Buffalo Bills… his family, his teammates and the city of Buffalo. As athletes, sometimes the game can overshadow us as individuals or people. And, just on behalf of the Warriors organization, we wish him the best…
“Keeping him in our prayers and hoping for the best possible outcome…”