If Klay Thompson keeps playing like this, the Warriors can win playoff games without Stephen Curry.
At age 32, after a torn ACL, then a ruptured Achilles, after the physical, emotional torment of 900-plus days of recovery and rehabilitation, after returning and finding his body out of sync with the memory of who he was supposed to be, after facing that smorgasbord of unrelenting frustration, Klay Thompson is back to going scorched earth on the basketball court.
After all those struggles that we saw and the much longer list of ones we did not see, Thompson just set a career milestone.
In three-straight appearances (albeit with some rest interspersed), Thompson scored 30-plus points.
It tells you all you need to know about Thompson that the first reaction to that milestone is generally “Klay hasn’t done that before?” It tells you even more that he’s done that after one of the more prolonged rehabilitations in NBA history.
Over those three games, he’s shot 53.2 percent from the field and 48.8 percent from three. He was scoring in 20s earlier this season, but the efficiency has taken a prodigious leap.
He’s back. That much is evident. But it’s still nice to hear him say it himself.
On Sunday night, as the Warriors threatened to blow a 29-point lead, allowing the New Orleans Pelicans to cut it to 11 points, Thompson steeled against disaster for a season-high 41 points which both ensured the Warriors retained the No. 3 seed for the playoffs and guaranteed him a 20-plus-point per game season for the sixth (and technically sixth-straight) time.
There was a seriousness to his gaze. He was playing with that joy he always does when he’s at his best, but into that fourth quarter, there was almost a snarl to it. After one late three to put the Warriors up 22, he gave a Tiger Woods-worthy fist pump, still with that serious look glued to his face.
Klay Thompson was always going to get back.
He said it in his recovery. He wasn’t going to come back and be a shell of himself. Thompson was maddeningly intent on returning to reap the rewards of the unceasingly physical and mental work he’d sowed.
Let us also take a brief moment to appreciate the glory that is his midrange game. That’s where his dominance shone the brightest in New Orleans.
The midrange jumper has not gone the way of the dodo, at least not yet. You see the veterans of the league employ it when they need a bucket: Chris Paul, DeMar Derozan, Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, etc.
But there is a silkiness to Thompson’s midrange game that is fairly unique. He looks impossibly relaxed, gets to his spot, and follows through with the most fundamental “dunk your hand in the fishbowl” type classicism.
What Tim Duncan did for post scoring, Thompson’s done for shooting. Unlike his backcourt partner, Curry, there is a replicability to Thompson’s stroke that coaches would actually encourage you to try and imitate. It is the perfect jump shot.
Watching him move off the ball is just as soothing. He’s back in the rhythm of the ever-flowing Warriors offense, slipping past screens like water over rocks. It’s seamless, efficient, without wasted motion. Two dribbles, shoot. One dribble, shoot. Often, no dribble, shoot.
He’s finding his rhythm early, getting those shots his body has finally remembered the physical cadence required to execute. As soon as those start falling, then you see him really start to launch.
He’ll take his absurd, probably ill-advised heat checks a couple times when he’s feeling himself like he is right now, but the rest of the shots are fantastic looks. That’s what Steve Kerr continues to highlight. He’s finding excellent opportunities consistently.
And hell, it’s Klay Thompson. Are you going to tell him he can’t take heat checks? This is the guy that scored 37 in a quarter. When he’s hot, it’s hard to even say those heat checks are bad looks.
Thompson has rediscovered himself and while he’s not physically where he once was, his confidence and the aggression that come with it have clearly returned. There’s so much physical and emotional scar tissue that it’s hard to imagine him being fazed by anything, let alone a playoff series.
So if the Warriors have Thompson in this form — and this form is not going away anytime soon, by the looks of things — yes, they can win without Curry in this first round against Denver.
Could they win a series without him? Maybe not. But if Thompson’s flamethrowing for 30 or 40 a game, it’s difficult to bet against that.
It seems unlikely they’d miss Curry for the entire series. There’s no exact timeline, but the latest from Kerr is that he’s a hard maybe for Game 1. It is difficult to believe he’d be unable to return at some point in the series.
Even if he isn’t there from the start, the point is that Thompson may be able to buy the Warriors some time.
He’s obviously not all they have, either.
You know you’re getting at least 20 points from Jordan Poole. Andrew Wiggins can probably give you at least 15. Jonathan Kuminga looks like he can find his way into double digits, and playoff Draymond knows how to get his when he needs to. The rest of the bench can scrounge up some points, too.
If Klay scores 30, you’ve got a recipe for a Warriors team that can score at a fairly prolific rate and will defend like hell with playoff stakes and Green anchoring the ship.
Laying this all out in calculated terms like this isn’t always reliable, but the Warriors have cooked up a Curry-less recipe that does the trick pretty damn well. It might not have the staying power to conjure up a series win without him, but they probably wouldn’t be asked to do that.
If Curry’s not there for the start of this series, we’ve reached the point where that is not a death sentence. Thompson and Green are playing as well as we’ve seen them since the dynasty years and there are enough other pieces they can work with to get a win or two on the board while they wait to reunite with Curry.
Klay Thompson is Klay Thompson again. He’s given the Warriors their teeth again.
