While the West Coast has been experiencing a cold front like never before, Klay Thompson has been as hot as fish grease the last two months. He began to heat up around the holidays and hasn’t slowed down despite all talk about him being “washed.” If this version of Thompson is washed, throw me in the spin cycle right now. Thompson’s also been a significant part of keeping Golden State afloat while fellow splash brother Stephen Curry is out with a leg injury.
Since ringing in the new year, Klay has three games where he’s made at least 10 three-point attempts, and in two of those, he hit 12. In the game where he hit 10 threes, he scored 54 points and shot nearly 54 percent overall from the field. In the calendar year of 2023, Thompson is averaging 26.3 points per game which is well above his season average of 22.1. That’s not half bad for a guy many slapping the washed label on earlier this season.
Those who think Thompson is done aren’t paying attention. The Warriors are hanging in the playoff race right now, and he’s a huge part of why that’s possible. Another part of the Warriors’ championship big three, Draymond Green, is now MIA because of a knee injury. After beating Minnesota at home Sunday night, the Warriors climbed back above .500 and currently sit in seventh place in the western conference.
With Curry and Green out of the lineup, the three-point sniper becomes the de facto leader of this young group of Warriors who’ve struggled at times this season. Andrew Wiggins, who was huge in Golden State’s title run last year, has also been in and out of the lineup this year due to nagging injuries and has missed the last four games himself.
There hasn’t been a time when Thompson’s presence has been more important in recent memory. Definitely not, since he returned from a two-year injury hiatus last season. So, let’s stop with this narrative that this man is all washed up and can’t still play at a high level. It’s just not true. And if you’ve counted the Warriors out because of them hovering around .500 all season, don’t sleep on them in the postseason. None of these top teams in the west want to see a healthy Golden State in a seven-game series.
The defending champs are just a half-game back of Dallas for sixth in the west and one game behind the Clippers for fifth. With 21 games left on the schedule, the Warriors could get their guys back healthy at just the right time, similar to how things shook out last year. And we all know what happened once it was winning time in the playoffs. The champs reclaimed their throne and put all the doubters to sleep. That’s what Klay is doing, laying all these false claims to rest.
