Golden State Warriors are trying to hang in the 10th seed with surging Houston Rockets coming from behind and Klay Thompson did his best to keep his team inside the play-in in the win against the Miami Heat. The 4-time NBA champion drilled six threes and had a game-high 28 points in the Warriors’ 113-92 blowout victory.
Thompson found himself slotted in his usual spot alongside Stephen Curry for the first time since February. Thompson moving to the bench, rejuvenated the Warriors’ legend who has averaged 19.8 points per game on 46% shooting and 43% from beyond the arc in 14 appearances as a reserve.
Last night, it was time for him to put up numbers as a starter to help the Warriors notch their 37th win of the season and kept their distance to a full game ahead of Houston in the race for the 10th spot in the Western Conference. Thompson felt indifferent about the fact that he was moved to the starting lineup.
“Not really,” Thompson told reporters on if it was different from him being back to th starting-five, per clutchpoints. “I just try to keep the same approach. Have fun, communicate, get great looks.”
Thompson indeed had fun as he finished an excellent shooting night as he had 11 for 20 from the floor, 6 for 14 on 3-pointers. His 28 points was the highest total since February 15. Brandin Podziemski is going through a shooting slump in the last five games making just 30.8% of his threes. The rookie guard is shooting 37.5% for the season.
Klay Thompson is back to his prime shooting numbers during March
With the NBA regular season entering its last month, Klay Thompson has climbed back to his usual shooting numbers after putting up poor numbers in offense during February. In 13 games during the month of March, Klay Thompson is shooting 44.6% from the field and a season-high 41% from beyond the arc.
Steve Kerr noted that the move to put Klay back in the starting lineup is not a permanent one, but if Thompson can help the “Dubs” win games, then we have to expect seeing him more often alongside his “Splash Brother” Stephen Curry. Klay Thompson cited the turnover-to -assist ratio as the reason behind Golden State’s dominant win.
“Our assist to turnover ratio was really good,” Thompson said, via NBA.com. “That’s always a great indicator of if it’s a good night at the office.”
The Warriors finished the contest against Miami with 30 assists and just a total of 12 turnovers, down from their season average of 14.6 per game.
