When Klay Thompson goes nuclear, as he did for 12 brilliant minutes on Sunday, a coat of armor seems to cover the Warriors. They’re going to win. Even the most resistant opponents usually end up sinking into defeat.
Of all the sights the Warriors could have hoped to see following consecutive forgettable losses, nothing could have been more welcome than that of Thompson raining jumpers with barely a ripple of the net.
Now more than usual, with Stephen Curry out, this is needed. Thompson’s timing is impeccable.
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For as much as they enjoyed Thompson’s 34 points -- including a 22-point first quarter -- in a 117-100 win over the mostly lenient Phoenix Suns, the Warriors would serve themselves well to realize there is more where that came from.
“That was a scorching first quarter,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr told reporters afterward. “That was fun to watch. He had the arena pretty excited, every time he went up for a shot after his first few you could hear the anticipation of the crowd. Yeah, he had it rolling.”
The coach took note. Rather than pull Thompson in the middle of the quarter, as usually happens, Kerr let Klay roll for its entirety. He has been rolling quite a bit this season, shooting a career-best 44 percent from beyond the arc.
But there have been numerous occasions when the Warriors failed to take full advantage. He gets the ball early, and it becomes scarcer as the game goes on. It’s as if Thompson at times gets lost among the 10 players on the court.
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Or his teammates aren’t looking hard enough.
The Warriors can’t allow that to happen now, not with Curry out. The key to getting the most out of their All-Stars is getting the most out of Thompson, checking his heat level early and, if hot, feeding him until his cries or defenses find a way to slow him.
All-Star forward Kevin Durant is a natural scorer that can get 35 points whenever he likes. He’s also adaptable, able to read the needs of the team. He has this season led the Warriors in scoring 39 times, in rebounding 21 times, in assists 16 times. With Thompson dropping 34 points Sunday, Durant scored 17 on 11 shots while spraying his teammates for nine assists.
Thompson has played seven seasons and never had nine assists in a game. His career-high is eight, and he hasn’t hit that level since 2013.
All-Star forward Draymond Green is a threat to post a triple-double in any game. His value is his versatility, his gift for doing a little bit of everything, with scoring as a bonus. He excels at it. Not once this season has he led the Warriors in scoring, but he has been the top rebounder 34 times and led them in assists 48 times.
Thompson has led the Warriors in rebounding once, led them in assists twice. On all three occasions, he shared the lead with at least one teammate.
He’s a solid defender that on the offensive end specializes in scoring, mostly from deep. When Thompson scores at least 20 points this season, the Warriors are 31-6. They are 4-2 in the six games since he returned after fracturing his right thumb, losing the games in which Thompson failed to reach 20.
In this instance, he got there quickly, and then scored only two in the second and third quarters before pouring in 10 in the fourth to bury any thought of a Suns comeback.
“We just tried to screen for him and he knocked down shots for us to get us going, exactly what we needed especially on a back to back,” Durant said of Thompson. “Everybody on the bench was confident we would figure ourselves out throughout that run, but Klay was huge. I think everybody was looking for him and being aggressive when we had the ball and making a couple of passes in the possession.”
Prior to Sunday, Thompson had led the Warriors in scoring 12 times in 72 games. And that’s with Curry missing 30 games and Durant missing 13.
With the playoffs looming and Curry out and Thompson shooting more accurately than at any time in his career, that ratio has to improve.
“It was good to get in a good rhythm, especially with two, well one game left now,” Thompson said, “and to have some great momentum going into this playoff stretch.”
If Thompson has a few more nuclear outbursts -- and they’re bound to happen with a few more opportunities -- the playoffs could stretch for weeks for the Warriors. Maybe even through the first half of June.