Klay Thompson’s spent a lot of his shortened regular season navigating restrictions.
Still trying to get his feet back under him and work within a minutes limit, Thompson experienced more lows than highs in his anticipated return. And though he’s still a half-step behind his excellent pre-injury defensive standard, Thompson is starting to look like himself in the playoffs.
The playoffs for Thompson means he’s a key member of many of their lineups, including the newest hot five-man group, playing the most minutes (32) of anyone on the team so far.
The 32-year-old has been an integral part of the Warriors’ historic postseason lineups, including the “Death Lineup,” featuring Andre Iguodala, Draymond Green, Steph Curry, Harrison Barnes and Thompson in their 2015 and 2016 Finals runs, and the “Hamptons Five” group that switched Barnes for MVP Kevin Durant in their runs from 2017-2019.
Thompson has said he spent some of his darkest days rehabbing from back-to-back ACL and Achilles injuries. He’s seeing the light now up 2-0 against the Denver Nuggets in the first round of the playoffs. Though still relatively unproven, he sees potential in this three-guard lineup.
“JP (Jordan Poole) and Steph (Curry) with the ball in their hands will make great decisions and Draymond is another great decision maker with shooting on the wings with me and Wiggs,” Thompson said. “It’s been successful the first two games but we haven’t done anything yet.”
Thompson is right to point out this new uber lineup, still nameless, is unproven. The Nuggets have a porous perimeter defense whose best, unsuccessful, counter to the three-point-shooting bonanza was to push up hard defensively beyond the arc. Should the Warriors hold on and win the series, this lineup will be challenged defensively — and coach Steve Kerr may deploy his rotations much differently depending on match-ups.
But for now, sharing the court with either Curry or Poole and Green has opened up space for Thompson to get comfortable again.
Thompson is still trying to shoot his way back to glory, a bit, which is resulting in less efficient scoring than his teammates. His 17 shot attempts per game lead the team, but he’s shooting 47% percent from the field and 44% from 3. To compare, Curry is shooting 57% from the field on 15 shot attempts per game, 50% from 3 on eight attempts.
But Thompson’s numbers are in keeping with his career playoff pace, where he was shooting 41% from 3 and 44% from the field in eight playoff appearances before this year. The new group is nothing without his fearless three-point shooting.
“It’s a passer’s paradise for me,” Green said. “You have Steph and Jordan, they roam differently than Klay. It’s kind of fluid and you have to keep an eye on them because they’re moving all over the place. Klay is a little different. Klay is going to roam when it’s time for him to get to his spot for a shot.”
Thompson, a member of the 2018-19 all-defensive team, has been critical of his defensive bounce-back since his return. But he’s improved during this playoff series.
“Definitely,” Thompson said. “Defense is still hard, staying in front of athletes is really hard to realize that until these last few years. I’m getting back there and trusting my teammates. Playing hard and having fun. You have to make defense fun. It is fun.”
