Klay’s 33-point eruption vs. Lakers special to him, Warriors originally appeared on NBC Sports Bayarea
SAN FRANCISCO – In the final game of the fifth week of his long-awaited return, Klay Thompson reminded one and all of the electricity the Warriors, their thirsty fans and the NBA had been missing for two-and-a-half seasons.
Few things in sport compare to Klay in The Zone, and Saturday night he delivered the kind of glorious shooting exhibition that has been his signature for nearly a decade.
This latest display of could not have arrived at a better time for the Warriors – or against a more appropriate opponent for Thompson: Fourth quarter, having fallen behind the Los Angeles Lakers, his favorite team growing up in Southern California and for whom his father, Mychal, is a color analyst on radio broadcasts.
Klay scored a season-high 33 points – with 16 coming in the fourth – to lead a frantic comeback that carried the Warriors to a 117-115 victory before a sellout crowd (18,064) at Chase Center.
“We are a lucky bunch to have No. 11 back,” Stephen Curry said.
“It meant something special to do it in front of my dad,” Thompson said. “I don’t think he’s seen me play in a few years, so I know he’s proud of me. And that’s always fun.”
Thompson scored 10 consecutive Golden State points, on 4-of-4 shooting, over a three minute, 21-second span, sending jolts of energy through the crowd and pulling the Warriors into a 109-109 tie with 3:01 remaining.
Thompson punctuated his show by draining a 3-pointer with 1:35 left to give the Warriors a 115-113 lead – their first since losing it to the Lakers in the opening minute of the quarter. A lead they retained over the final 95 seconds.
“Phenomenal,” coach Steve Kerr said. “Just took over the game at a time when we desperately needed him.”
With 13 points in less than five minutes, this was, for Klay and the fan base, a snippet of a stroll down memory lane. Shades of the 37-point quarter in 2015, Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals in 2016, the 52 points in 27 minutes – including an NBA-record 14 3-pointers – in 2018. While this was merely a few minutes, it was reminiscent of past performances.
A refresher, if you will, from a player who was away from the game for 31 months, sidelined by two devastating injuries, before returning on Jan. 9.
“It’s pretty special because the crowd has seen it so many times,” Kerr said. “And for it to happen now, after that two-and-a-half-year layoff, as much as everyone loved Klay back then, they love him even more now because they know what he’s been through.
“To see him ignite and to see the crowd getting so into it with his teammates . . . Klay is special. It goes beyond making shots. He brings electricity to the building that’s hard to quantify.”
Thompson shot 12-of-22 from the field, including 5-of-9 beyond the arc, in achieving his first 30-point game since his return – and first since Game 6 of the 2019 NBA Finals. He scored exactly 30 points, in 32 minutes, before sustaining a torn left ACL that was the first of his two severe injuries.
This, then, was something of a barrier cleared for Klay.
“Oh yeah,” he said. “What? After not feeling that feeling for a few years? Yeah, I do not take a 30-ball lightly in this league.”
Closing out the Lakers in such sizzling fashion also might have cleansed any lingering bitterness from two nights earlier, when Thompson’s potential game-tying shot bounced off the rim at the buzzer and the Knicks sprinted out of Chase with a 116-114 win.
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“We needed it, obviously and right place, right time, confidence to take those shots,” Curry said. “I’m most excited about, or proud of, that it was great to see, just knowing how the last game ended and how much he wanted to perform down the stretch. That’s how basketball goes. You make some, miss some.
“But there’s the confidence I talk about all the time. And if there’s anybody else that exudes that at the level it should be, it’s Klay. It was great to hear and see the crowd get into it. Great to see him just live in the moment and it was special 12 minutes.”
This was timely. This was familiar. This was memorable. This was Klay spending a few minutes in The Zone, and it’s always a sight to behold.
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