Klay’s departure: The business and emotion of sport

So Klay Thompson is going, leaving us with irreplaceable memories and leaving the Golden State Warriors with a void that will not be filled for a long time, if ever.

Those guys on the fields, ice and floors, they’re more than just the jersey with a team label. They become part of the community, neighbors. People you would want to succeed as much for their satisfaction as your own.    

Sure, Klay was the one who scored 37 points in a quarter, unprecedented, but also was the one who when he was residing in Oakland would stop by a restaurant in the Montclair area for breakfast or later after he moved to Marin would sail his boat around the Bay.

His game had declined to a point where he wasn’t getting the points and thus was made a backup by head coach Steve Kerr. To the Warriors, trapped between a salary cap and expectations, Klay wasn’t worth retaining in that situation.

That’s the business side of sports. Which too often takes control over the emotional side, not that the Warriors, to their credit, did not disregard the emotional side.

“We cannot overstate Klay Thompson’s incredible and legendary contributions to the      Warriors during his 13 years with the team.”

The note was a not-unexpected touch of class from an organization always at the forefront of sports. That is not to be confused with a touch of glass, that occasionally assisted Klay’s shots to reach the basket as he helped the Warriors win four NBA championships.       

Steph Curry, the heart of the Warriors, and Draymond Green will return, but the immediate future seems grim. The experts wonder if Golden State even will make the playoffs much less win another title. The magic word is rebuilding, which for a team that is mediocre—OK, let’s phrase it more delicately, average—takes patience and good luck, meaning a sleeper in the draft.

Some of the folks in the so-called Warriors Nation weren’t attuned until the era of victory parades. No one even referred to them as the Dubs.

Almost nothing stays the same in the NBA, other than the Boston Celtics.

Whether the Warriors had a dynasty is not important. They were winners, and one of those winners was Klay Thompson. Good guy, a great player, and is now a man of the glorious past. 

Sad. So sad.

Lakers get Bronny, Warriors desperate for Klay

So the Lakers got LeBron James’ son (why are not surprised?)

The Atlanta Hawks took a kid who not only seems as tall as the Eiffel Tower but can probably tell you its history. And Golden State selected two players unfamiliar to many of us. Maybe that should be, to most of us.

However, in Northern Cal this weekend of the NBA draft, what matters is where Klay Thompson chooses to land. When June comes to an end, so does his contract with the Warriors. Making him a free agent and thus unlike the draftees, he can join the team he wants.

It’s hard to say what Brony James will do for the Lakers, for which his dad is a full-time employee. Or what the 6-foot-10 Frenchman, Zaccharie Risacher, will contribute to the Hawks in his rookie season.

Klay is a four-time All-Star we know. As does Warriors coach Steve Kerr who said it most succinctly: “We desperately need Klay.”

Even with him, the Warriors figure to struggle. The champions have grown old, which is what champions do.  

Steph Curry is 36, Draymond Green is 34, and Klay is 34. The court is packed with younger people, stronger people. Even with those three, the Warriors didn’t win the championship the previous two years. And certainly, without each one of the three, they won’t even be in contention this season. This is perhaps the last hurrah.

The NBA, as the NFL, is designed for realignment. High draft picks, and the position of low teams, build new winners. Then almost before we know it, the new winners are old. 

It will be a joyful union for LeBron, a father at 38, with his son joining him on the Lakers roster. It’s a story. It’s been a story for months. But the Lakers, as the Warriors, have aged.

First-round or second-round picks are the requirement. Steph and Klay were first-rounders, and Draymond was a second-rounder. Talent.

The Warriors didn’t have a first or early second-round selection this draft, which didn’t seem to matter if you could mentally handle it on TV as every other team improved itself. Finally, the Warriors stepped onto the stage, although not in the stirring way the Lakers did, forming the first family franchise.

The Warriors traded the No. 52 overall pick to the Oklahoma City Thunder for forward Lindy Waters III. Then the Warriors reacquired the selection for cash and used it on 7-foot Quintent Post. He’s from the Netherlands.     

All is well and good, but they still have to bring back Klay.

Warriors season is gone; does Klay stay or go?

Klay Thompson was upset. Not because he had missed every one of his field goal attempts — and surely that contributed to his discontent. But about the question posed to him this morning after, the one about his future, which at that moment seemed the only proper question to be asked. 

Of course when you went 0-for-10, and your team, the proud and until now eminently successful Golden State Warriors, would fail to qualify for the playoffs — ending a streak at 13 straight seasons — the question may not have seemed so proper.

“You don’t want to talk about the season first?” Thompson said, answering a question with a question of his own. “You want to talk about the future?”

Indeed. 

It does little good to discuss what has happened, other than in certain instances as a bit of self-satisfaction. Once a game is finished, a season complete, unless you’re stepping away, the issue is what will happen.  

The Warriors were the NBA’s best. No more. Their roster has become a blend of memories and possibilities.

The embarrassment of Tuesday night's play-in game, with the Sacramento Kings defeating the Warriors 114-98, may have been less of a disappointment and more of a revelation. Yes, Steph Curry still has his wits and his 3-pointers, Draymond Green is a defensive whiz and team leader, and Klay’s offense is invaluable — as his lack of scoring against the Kings made only too clear.

But the Warriors were out-muscled and out-hustled, pushed around as much symbolically as physically. They basically never had a chance. Except to show how much they lack.

Sport more than anything else makes us aware of the passing of time. The cliche that nothing and no one lasts forever is all too apparent on our courts and fields, diamonds and gridirons. The pieces are out there, and sometimes they fit perfectly — for a while. But it can’t last.

Veteran fans understand. Organizations are always on the lookout, on the rebuild, drafting, and coaching, but there only was one Michael Jordan, and there only is one Steph Curry.

The New England Patriots defied the odds. They were contenders in the NFL for a decade. Then they were hopeless and Bill Belichick was a nowhere man.

Where Klay Thompson is going to be next season and beyond is the topic of notable consequence. Curry and Draymond are under contract. Thompson is a free agent. 

“I can’t see us playing without him,” said Steph.

What Klay and the Warriors’ management see is what will count. 

“I previously just said about the season we had and how much commitment it takes to play the games we did and give it our all,” said Thompson, “so I really haven’t thought about that deep into the future because I still need to process the year we had and it was one filled with ups and downs, but ultimately, we — I personally and our team did everything we could to try and win as many games as we possibly could.”

He was asked, about living in the future, what were some of the things?

“Good place to be.”

Will that good place still be with the Warriors?

Warriors-Lakers: California here they come

This is as good as it gets for the not-so-late great state of California. Who cares if ESPN is fixated on listing events at Eastern Daylight Time?

Let's catch the last train to the Coast where oranges and redwoods grow and where the former Minneapolis Lakers and Philadelphia Warriors relocated with enviable success. 

Who imagined a few months ago when the Lakers were losing and the Warriors couldn’t win on the road that now in the lusty month of May they would be playing each other here in the NBA Western Conference semifinals, a playoff round as enticing as it should be entertaining.

LeBron and Steph, AD and Looney — and Klay, Draymond, and Wigs. Yes, basketball is the ultimate team sport, but it’s the individuals who make the shots and the difference.

To reprise that so-very-accurate Michael Jordan response when told there is no “I” in team, ”Yeah, but there is in win.”

There’s also an old journalistic idea that nothing is as dead as yesterday’s news. OK, but even moving forward past Sunday’s news, the Dubs stunningly overwhelmed the Kings, 120-100 at Sacramento, and Steph Curry set a Game 7 record with 50 points. In this case, yesterday’s news is going to live a long time.  

What we re-learned from both the Warriors and Lakers, who beat the Memphis Grizzlies, is that reputations as winners are well deserved.

LeBron James of the Lakers has scored more points than anyone in NBA history. Steph Curry is arguably the greatest shooter in NBA history. Two offensive stars ​​— yet in the end the results may depend on defense and rebounding. Or lack of it, which seemingly was why the Kings, after taking the first two games, lost four of the last five. They couldn’t stop Curry.

LA vs SF, initials representing the two cities founded by Spanish explorers. A rivalry of geography. And of pride.

For years and decades, NBA basketball out west belonged to the Lakers, to Wilt Chamberlain (although he did come out from Philly with the Warriors), Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and certainly Magic Johnson. Sixteen NBA titles, one fewer than the Celtics, to three for the Warriors, including one in 1975.  

Until Steve Kerr became the head coach of the Warriors, Curry, Klay Thompson, Andre Iguodala, and Draymond Green were on the roster. Then the Warriors added four more titles. It’s a quick turn-around for the Dubs, who must shift attention and style to face the Lakers, starting Tuesday night at Chase Center. 

“We’re excited to have the opportunity,” Kerr said about going against the Lakers. “I think the Lakers changed their team dramatically at the trade deadline. They made some brilliant moves and became an entirely different team.”

“Darvin (Lakers coach Darvin Ham) has done an incredible job guiding that team. They’re excellent defensively. They’ve got one of the all-time greats in LeBron. But a lot of talent across the roster. So it’s going to take a big effort to beat them, and we know how good they are.”

Just as the Lakers know how good the Warriors are.

Warriors’ Big Three bring nostalgia and talent

The head coach, Steve Kerr, called it a good lineup. Let’s do him better. It’s a great lineup, a lineup that features three of basketball’s best the past few years, a lineup that unfortunately hasn’t been together much this season

A lineup that was on court Saturday night in a reminder and rejuvenation, when the Warriors pounded the Denver Nuggets, 123-107, winning game one of the playoffs.

A lineup that surely will be used Monday night when the Warriors, again playing at Chase Center, hope to hold on to their home court advantage.

A lineup bringing together nostalgia and talent.

Jordan Poole, the almost new guy, was — well, is brilliant too strong a word? — dominant with 30 points. And Kevon Looney, hardly a stranger, was the defender and rebounder he’s required to be.

Still, what was joyful, as well as successful, was having three of the old favorites return and work together as they did in the not-so-distant vintage years.

There they were, Steph Curry (you knew he would be playing despite being out the last few weeks with that ankle injury); Klay Thompson (after all he went through missing two straight seasons, he wasn’t going to miss this chance; and Draymond Green (whose absence for several weeks because of an injury was noticeable).

Our athletic heroes come and go with alarming speed. Buster Posey was a rookie yesterday, or so it seems, and now he has retired. Serena Williams is done. There’s always a new kid on the block. So appreciate what we have until we no longer have it.

Who knows how far the Warriors will go this season? The Suns finished with a far better record. Curry, echoing the thoughts of those who feel disrespected and unappreciated, complained before the post-season began.

“Nobody is picking us to come out of the west," he said. "At least I don't think, except our families.” Which is understandable. The Dubs had too many people hurt.

Now the injured are back. Now it’s a page from the past. Except the Warriors are older, and there are numerous younger guys, ready to move in. It’s the nature of sport. And life.

Steph, Klay and Draymond are still around, however, giving their all and giving us an opportunity. Five years from now, we’ll reminisce, and then realize what we had — if we haven’t realized it already.

“It’s very special,” Thompson said of working his way back and reuniting with the other two — and returning to the playoffs.

“I thought about all the days in the gym.” Thompson said of his long rehabilitation, “in the doctor’s office, on the surgery table, and just be flying up and down the court, be knocking shots down and playing solid defense.

“It was a surreal moment for me, and to do it in front of the crowd we had, I give Dub nation amazing credit. They were so loud as we ran through the tunnel. Just something I won’t take for granted, just being able to play basketball. It was very surreal to me.”

For the rest of us, it was actual and wonderful. We hear and read negative things about athletes, so to hear Thompson and his teammates relish what they have is reassuring.

That the Big Three have teamed to win championships is not to be underestimated. That’s the essence of their popularity. But there’s more.

They’ve won hearts as well as games. One is just as important as the other. Watch and enjoy.

LeBron stops the boos — and the Warriors

One game, two conclusions: There’s nothing wrong with LeBron James. There’s plenty wrong with the Golden State Warriors.

On Saturday night in Los Angeles, the fans stopped booing the home team just long enough to watch James score a season-high 56 points and the Lakers defeat the Warriors, 124-116.

For the Lakers, who Monday night play at San Antonio, the victory ended a four-game losing streak.

For the Warriors, who Monday night play at Denver, the defeat extended a losing streak to four games.

“Right now I don’t give a damn about the 56,” was James’ post-game statement. “I’m just glad we got a win.”

That’s something Warriors coach Steve Kerr understood, because he didn’t get one in a game the Dubs led in the fourth quarter, as if that matters.

Suddenly the Warriors are in third place overall in the NBA. They already were behind Phoenix. Now they’re also in back of Memphis.

“There’s more games coming, so we’ve got to do this ourselves,” said Kerr, emphasizing the obvious. “We’ve got to dig out of the mud, and nobody’s going to help us.”

A tale of two Californians: in southern Cal, the patrons are more demanding — thinking back to the days of Magic and Shaq and Kobe, of showtime and multiple titles.

In Northern Cal, we’re grateful for the seasons of Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and, oh-so-briefly, Kevin Durant.

The name missing from the time of Warriors success is that of Draymond Green, who for years — well, it’s just a few weeks, but it seems like years — has been rehabbing, not playing.

His last game was in January. You wonder if his next game won’t be until June.

Just as LeBron showed us he still is LeBron, on Saturday night Steph showed us he’s still Steph, 30 points and some poignant analysis on the post-game show.

“We’re finding different ways to lose,” said Curry. “Self-inflicted wounds.”

You understand what he means, but truth tell, the Dubs are losing only one way. They’re not getting enough points, and the opponent is getting too many.

One reasons is that Klay Thompson, back once more after two seasons recovering from two different serious injuries, has struggled.

Just because you’re finally back on the floor doesn’t mean you’re immediately going to be back in the groove. “I think Klay is pressing,” said Chris Mullin, the former all-star who now does commentary on Warriors telecasts.

Well, of course. He is impatient to be the player he was previously, and Warriors fans are no less impatient. Still, these things can’t be rushed. 

Thompson was out recently with what the injury report listed as  a “general illness.” Whatever, it knocked him off his stride.

“I feel like the sickness affected his conditioning and his timing,” said Kerr.

Timing is such a critical element, not only within the game, the passing, the rebounding, the switching on defense, but also on the scheduling.

If the Warriors played the Lakers on another night, well, LeBron is great but who would imagine he would get all those points?

And, in a way, make a point to anyone who figured he had declined.

“When he has it going like that,” Lakers guard Russell Westbrook, said of James, “there’s nothing nobody on the other team can do about it. He forced his will and was able to direct the game on all levels.

“It was really big, especially in a game where we needed a win.”

The Lakers got their needed win. The Warriors did not. “Obviously we’re going to have to get healthy,” said Kerr. “We desperately need Draymond.”

They need something, no question.

Klay wants more minutes, and he’ll get them

Time is always an issue for an athlete. His days, her days, are numbered from the very start. It’s only a question of how many remain.   

And then there are the injuries.

The time in treatment. The time in rehabilitation. The time watching others play the way you played and wondering whether you’ll be able to play again.

The time answering questions about when you’ll be back.

Klay Thompson, at last, is back. Maybe at the moment, after only two games — the third is Thursday night at Milwaukee — not as far back as he desires, but he’s a basketball player once more.

So much joy. So much satisfaction. Not only for Thompson, which is understandable after two and a half years incapacitated, but for the Warriors community, indeed the Bay Area.

Klay Thompson has been a great player. He comes across as a good guy.

Just as Steph Curry, Draymond Green, Andre Iguodala and the other Warriors we know — or think we know —come across as good people, touching lives if unintentionally.

Strange, and wonderful, how we grow attached to those we watch make baskets or touchdowns or birdie putts, people we may never get closer to than a television screen.    

It’s only laundry that unites us, we’re told, a jersey, a warmup jacket. But it’s the humanity that comes through. How can you not want him to succeed? And succeed he will.

Warriors coach Steve Kerr seemed pleased the way Thompson performed Tuesday night at Memphis, if not the way the game went. Klay hit 5 of 15 shots and scored 19 points, while the Dubs were beaten, 116-108.

“He looks quick, agile, strong,” said Kerr, evaluating Thompson. “It’s really exciting to see him playing this well this early.”

For Thompson, after a battered leg followed by a torn Achilles tendon, it’s no less rewarding as it is exciting.

Long ago, a Warriors center named Nate Thurmond reinjured a knee that had been surgically repaired. He was despondent. “I just can’t go through it again,” said Thurmond.

He did, however. It was the price one had to pay to return to the sport, to be able to use the remaining days of a career that already had grown short.

With fortune, the career of Klay Thompson blossoms again. He will be 32 next month. The future, so questionable after the injuries, now should be full of jump shots and glee.

Thompson’s father, Mychal, was the No. 1 overall choice (by Portland) in the 1978 NBA draft. Klay is well schooled in the sport and in life. That doesn’t make the injuries easier to accept, but it does provide a sense of perspective. Change is inevitable.

“We will ramp up the minutes for Klay,” said Kerr, after Thompson played 20 against the Grizzlies. “It’s a process. He will be getting stronger in the next three, four weeks.”

Kerr also said Thompson has to learn the moves and games of men he had never played with such as Gary Payton II and Jordan Poole. In addition, the NBA style has been altered, teams frequently going to a smaller lineup.

“We’re going to want Steph (Curry) and Klay down the stretch in games,” said Kerr, who has been as patient waiting for Thompson’s return as Thompson himself.

“My minutes are restricted,” said Thompson. “I want to play 35 a game. You just can’t take that much time off and be back where you were. But I feel great. I don’t even feel tired.

“One thing is the same — every team wants to beat us. We’re going to get everybody’s best shot.”

They should respond with enough shots of their own. Klay is back.

Some draft day: Warriors get Wiseman, lose Klay

By Art Spander

Now the wait begins for the Warriors. To see how quickly Klay Thompson recovers from yet another injury.

To see if James Wiseman becomes the dominant player he’s supposed to be.

To see when and if, in this Covid-cursed time, they’ll be allowed to have crowds for home games at Chase Center.

A Wednesday that was supposed to be advantageous, Golden State able to utilize the second pick in the ’20 NBA draft — with which Wiseman was selected — became tumultuous.

Thompson, preparing for a comeback after the terrible injury that ripped his left knee and the Warriors' chances in the 2019 playoff finals, hurt his lower right leg during a workout in southern California, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

Meanwhile, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that the San Francisco Department of Health rejected the team’s plans to allow 18,000-seat Chase to be half-filled for games, setting a maximum of 4,500 because of Covid restrictions.

All this news and not a single jump shot since March. But certainly plenty of speculation, not unusual for any draft day, much less one as full of disabiltity — Klay’s injury — and possibility as this one.

ESPN had been touting the draft as the Warriors’ opportunity to rebuild a dynasty, Golden State having reached the finals five straight times, 2015-2019, and having won three of those.

If that record doesn’t quite fulfill the requirement of a dynasty, particularly compared to the Celtics of the 1960s and Lakers of the 1980s and 2000s, it was the best in basketball for a while, a long while.

You add a high pick, which turned out to be the 7-foot-1 Wiseman, put Steph Curry, Draymond Green and Thompson on the court with him and, well, maybe they wouldn’t win it all, but they’d at least remind us of what used to be.

Then we were reminded, but the wrong way, with Thompson’s injury, the severity of which remains in question until additional tests are made.

But as they say, when one of your stars returns after missing a season because of a torn anterior cruciate ligament and then injures his other leg and hobbles off the court, it’s not going to be good news.

The early report is Klay has “a significant Achilles injury.” If so, the dynasty rebuilld will be stopped before it has started. Kevin Durant is proof that Achilles injuries take months to overcome.

The basketball fates smiled on the Warriors. Now they sneer. Curry broke his left hand several games into last season, and by the time he returned the team was headed for the draft lottery.

They did have a bit of good fortune, earning the No. 2 overall pick, but this second injury to Klay, who’s now 30, ruins everything.

As an undergrad at Memphis last year, his only year, Wiseman was burdened with his own problems.

In his first game as a freshman, he had 28 points and 11 rebounds. But two more games, and whop, Wiseman was suspended by the NCAA for accepting improper benefits, including $11,500 in moving expenses from Memphis coach Penny Hardaway.

Instead of trying to regain his eligibility, Wiseman, who was a one-and-done guy anyway, in effect said "the heck with it" and waited to enter the NBA draft. If he doesn’t have the last laugh, he’ll have plenty of money. And the Warriors will have a potential all-star at center.

“Going through adversity made me stronger,” Wiseman said after he was taken, following the selection of Georgia’s Anthony Edwards — the guard some observers say the Warriors coveted — and before LaMelo Ball, the guard who played around the world.

With Wiseman, the Warriors have the inside game they will need without Thompson joining Curry for the outside game.

Without Klay, the Warriors have a huge question.

Not the trade-off that anyone could wish.

For Warriors, Klay is back — and soon Cousins will be too

By Art Spander
For Maven Sports

OAKLAND, Calif. — It was a night when the Warriors remembered what they had — not that anyone would have been irreverent enough to forget — and also learned what they soon would have.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2019, The Maven 

Dominance links Bama football and Golden State Warriors

By Art Spander

OAKLAND, Calif. — The idea is interesting. The college football writer of the New York Times, Marc Tracy, contends that Alabama’s football team has in effect become the Warriors.

Yes, the NBA Warriors, the team that both astonishes, because of its success, and to the big boys in the Eastern time zone irritates, because the Dubs' home games end at around 1 a.m. in New York and Boston.

It's rare when a California team, in any sport, becomes the benchmark. But there was the headline in Monday morning’s Times and Tracy writing about Bama, “They are so dominant that their best player, quarterback Tea Tagovailoa, usually sits out the fourth quarter, much as Stephen Curry, the Warriors' otherworldly star, frequently does.”

Can’t blame Tracy for trying. Or the Warriors or Bama for winning.

Curry didn’t sit it out on Monday night, literally, although he did virtually, playing only 1 minute 52 seconds of a period the Warriors entered leading by 19 points after one of their trademark third-quarter bursts.

Eventually, the Dubs would win, 117-101, over the Memphis Grizzlies to push their record for the young season to 10-1.

Bama, in case you’re interested, is 9-0, and headed for another championship. As apparently are the Warriors.

Golden State — maybe we change the name to Gold Standard — was far from perfect. Curry missed six of his first seven shots, although he made 5 of his last 10, scoring 19 points. And at the close of one of those Warrior-esque third quarters, when the Gold Standard outscored the Grizz, 34-15, Steph blocked Wayne Selden’s layup attempt.”\

The Warriors played the Grizzlies grind-it-out, hold-the-ball style early on. And had a spate of turnovers. Probably because Draymond Green, the boss man out there, got hurt, a foot contusion that would keep him out the entire second half. He had no points, four rebounds and no assists. He had no broken bones either, an X-ray showed.

Then, as Kevin Durant said, “We used our physicality and started to play our game.” Durant had 22 points.

“A lot of times he’ll have the ball in his hands anyway,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said of Durant, “but we do occasionally design stuff where he can handle the ball and distribute. With Draymond out in the second half, the ball just naturally gravitated to KD more, and this was a typical Kevin night where he doesn’t have to shoot a whole lot. He might not even be interested in shooting a whole lot”.

Durant took only 11 shots, making 7. For this game the shooter was Klay Thompson, 11 of 21, 27 points. “Klay has gotten better with his ball handling and with his passing,” said Kerr. “He’s just expanding, and his game is growing.”

Thompson wanted to talk about others, especially Durant. “He was doing everything out there,” Thompson said of Durant. “When he gets to mid-range he is clearly impossible to stop. Our defense was also really impressive. A mixture of those two things, I think, spurred that run.”

Alfonzo McKinnie, who played his way on to the team during the summer league, had another big game, 14 points off the bench.

“It’s unbelievable,” Thompson said of McKinnie. “I don’t want to jinx him, but he makes his first shot every time he comes into the game. Since the preseason I’ve been seeing him play. He’s so efficient, and he fills a great role for us, as far as his defensive versatility, his ability to rebound and his ability to knock down jumpers.

“He’s a great athlete, and I cannot believe the guy hasn’t been in the NBA for years now. He took a crazy path, and he deserves everything he’s doing.”

McKinnie, street tough — both arms are full of tattoos — said he isn’t surprised by what he’s been able to do. What has surprised him is the ovation from the Oracle Arena sellout crowds. ”Oh, man,” said McKinnie, “the atmosphere is crazy. I’ve never seen anything like that.”

What Memphis coach J.B, Bickerstaff saw Monday night was hardly unexpected. “First and foremost, they (the Warriors) are good. They know who why are.”

So does the U. of Alabama, to one writer at least the Warriors of college football.

Klay Thompson’s big game: ‘I guess you could say I was born for it’

By Art Spander

OAKLAND, Calif. — This one had all the ecstasy and agony of NBA basketball compressed into 48 breathtaking, dramatic minutes, huge point swings — Houston scored 30 fewer points in the fourth quarter than it did in the first — a magnificent performance by Klay Thompson and, to the delight of both fans of the team and the sport, a Warriors victory.

Delight for the Dubs' partisans, because that remarkable 115-86 win over the Rockets on Saturday night at the Oracle kept their team’s season alive for at least one more game.

Delight for basketball fans everywhere because after Houston and Golden State have spent six games, shooting over and shoving against each other in the NBA Western Conference finals, on Monday night at Houston there will be a decisive seventh game to determine whether the Warriors, the defending champs, reach the final for a fourth straight year or whether the Rockets push them aside.

“I think if it was July or August,” said Mike D’Antoni, the Houston coach, “and someone told us we’ve got to the seventh game on our home court against Golden State, would you sign up for it? Yeah. We’d sign up right there.”

And if someone told Warriors coach Steve Kerr on Saturday when the Dubs trailed by 17 at the end of the first quarter, 39-22, whether he would be similarly satisfied with a seventh game, although on the road, you know what his answer would have been. “We like our formula,” he said about the way his team came through.

And they love Thompson, who’s as cool as the Bay Area spring weather. He had a huge game two years ago when the Warriors were down in the conference semis against Oklahoma City — then co-led by Kevin Durant. On Saturday night, he scored 21 of his 35 points after halftime when he and Steph Curry finally slipped free of the Rockets' defense.

“Í think Klay doesn’t worry too much about repercussions,” said Kerr. “He doesn’t worry about judgment and results. I think he just loves to play.”

And why not? He grew up within the game, son of Mychal Thompson, first overall pick in the 1978 draft by Portland. So to say that Klay was born for his role, throwing in long jumpers when his team is in trouble, isn’t entirely wrong.

“I don’t know if I was born for it,” said Klay, “but I definitely worked my butt off to get to this point.”

“I mean you could say,” he did say, then laughed, “I was born for it. I don’t know. Everything happens for a reason. That felt good, to be honest. I just wanted to play with as much passion as I could. Probably more vocal than usual. If your back’s against the wall and your shots are not falling, you can always control your passion and how hard you play.”

His shots fell. He was 6-for-11 in the first half, 7-for-12 in the second. He finished 9-of-14 on threes.

“He got on a roll,” said D’Antoni. “He hit some big ones too.”

As far as the Warriors are concerned, there were no small ones. And as far as D’Antoni is concerned, there’s not enough you can say about Thompson, whom he ranks with Curry, Durant and Draymond Green, the other three All-Stars on the Warriors.

“We know we have to guard him,” said D’Antoni. “A lot of those looks were Klay Thompson. Talking about two superstars. Well, they’ve got three superstars. Oh, they’ve got four superstars. Klay Thompson, what did he have 60 in a quarter or something?”

It was in a quarter plus, 29 minutes, in December 2016.

But it was May 26, 2018, that counts for Thompson and the Warriors, the victory Saturday, especially when for a few harrowing moments it seemed their season was coming to an abrupt end.

“We were down 10 at half,” said Thompson. “We felt like we gifted them a great first quarter. But we weren’t forcing them to do anything they weren’t comfortable in doing.

“We were going to come out firing and leave it all on the line.”

What they left was the excitement of a game that, for the Warriors, couldn’t have started worse — or ended better.

Kerr on Klay: ‘His second half was just an explosion’

By Art Spander

OAKLAND, Calif. — The frustration was over. The game was as good as over. Klay Thompson, missing shots at the start — “they made it tough on us,” he said — hit a big one at the end. He raised his arms. The fans at Oracle raised the roof.

The Warriors were safe, winners at home once again over the San Antonio Spurs, 116-101.

A must win. The next two games of this first-round playoff are at San Antonio, where the Dubs could lose one. Maybe two. But now they won’t be in a hole either way.

Now they lead the series, 2-0, and as the cliché goes, they’ve held serve, keeping the home-court advantage. It was a struggle, as it figured to be. In the playoffs, the team that loses the opener does everything imaginable, tactically, physically, to win the second game — to turn the series in their direction.

“They just took it to us the whole first half,” said Warriors coach Steve Kerr. “I think that’s the second-best defense in the league statistically, and they got after us. They took away everything we were trying to do.”

They held the Warriors to 47 points, while scoring 53. They held Thompson to 7 points.

“Klay didn’t have much going in the first half,” commented Kerr accurately. But there are two halves in a game, and the Warriors always have been a second-half team.

Monday night, Thompson was a second-half scorer.

Of his 31 points, one fewer than Kevin Durant, 24 came after intermission.

“His second half was just an explosion,” Kerr said of Thompson. “KD was just methodical as he always is.”

A fractured thumb kept Thompson out of eight games in March, and with Stephen Curry injured — he still isn’t ready — the Warrior offense was awful. But Kerr believes Klay may have benefitted from not being able to play.

“He finally got some time off,” said Kerr of Thompson. “He has to defend the opponent’s best guard night in and night out. He never misses a game. He’s been in the league seven years, and I don’t know how many games he’s missed, but not a lot. So I think in hindsight that probably wasn’t the worst thing for him to get a few weeks off. He looks really fresh and sharp right now.”

Thompson, elated with his finish (he ended up 12 of 20, 5 of 8 on threes) didn’t disagree with the theory. “Unfortunately it hurts when you do,” he said, and the explanation could have been taken literally, “but in the long run we try to play ‘til June every season.”

In the first quarter Monday night, Thompson had only two points, three shots, one basket. He would fail on four of his first five.

“I don’t think it was focus,” he said. “It’s the playoffs. It’s hard to have a good game every game, especially against the Spurs, because I’m sure they’re motivated, and they played so hard in the first half.

“They were so physical and knocking us off our cuts, fighting every screen, forcing turnovers. Some of it was on us, not being sure at the ball. But give them credit.”

What the Warriors were giving the Spurs was the ball, 11 turnovers in the first half; that was reduced to four in the second half.

You’ve heard it before. Cold or hot, a shooter must keep shooting. Thompson, cold, did that and got hot.

“It doesn’t matter whether I make five in a row or miss five in a row,” said Thompson. “I’m going to have the same mentality down the road: That’s being aggressive to make a good play. That doesn’t mean just getting a shot. That means making the right play, because that usually will get you in rhythm, if you just make a play for a teammate.”

One of those teammates, Curry, is unable to get on the floor because of a severe knee injury. As Thompson is well aware.

“I mean, there’s definitely extra pressure,” said Thompson about Curry’s absence, “but in my mind, no, I don’t need to put pressure. I just go out there and be myself, be free-minded and have fun.”

As he did in the second half.

S.F. Examiner: Return of Kerr, Klay’s shooting are welcome sights for Warriors

By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

OAKLAND — One of them hadn’t been seen. The other hadn’t been appreciated — except by those who understand what makes a basketball team a winner, a category that includes the guy who hadn’t been seen, Steve Kerr.

Yes, Kerr, with his one-liners and perception, was on the bench Sunday night coaching the Golden State Warriors in person. So, welcome back, coach. And in a way, the other Special K, Klay Thompson also was back, with his 2- and 3-pointers. Of course, hoops cognoscenti who look beyond points totals — Mr. Kerr, for one — know Klay never left.

Read the full story here.

©2017 The San Francisco Examiner

And then there was Steph — who else?

By Art Spander

OAKLAND — Steph. Who else? The game wasn’t supposed to be that close. But it was. The Trail Blazers wouldn’t fade, wouldn’t recognize they were beaten, even when they were. The Blazers just kept coming, like blazes, if you’ll accept the line.

There they were, within two points. And then there was Steph. Swish. We’ve seen it before. We’ll see it again.

A three-pointer. A step-back 26-footer with 24.9 seconds left. A dagger. “I mean, Steph is Steph,” said Warriors coach Steve Kerr. “I think our fans are used to it. I’m used to it. He makes these incredibly difficult shots.”

Makes them when the team needs him to make them.

“He makes big-time shots,” said Blazers coach Terry Stotts. “That last shot he made was well defended. He’s a special player who can do special things.”

He’s the NBA’s Most Valuable Player for a second straight year, a unanimous choice this time, for the first time in history. He got the trophy in ceremonies before the game, and then with that basket, which put the W’s ahead by three, he helped get a thrilling, nerve-wracking 125-121 victory Wednesday night at Oracle.

So the Warriors, the defending champions, take the Western Conference semifinals as they took the first round, four games to one, and now will face the winner of the San Antonio-Oklahoma City series for the right to get to the NBA finals once more.

It wasn’t just Steph Curry, however, on this night that started late — tipoff was just before 8 p.m. — and ended very late, around 10:45. It was also the man who had been carrying the Warriors when Curry was out with a bad knee, Klay Thompson, who was 13 of 17 from the field and had 33 points. And it was Draymond Green, hustling, rebounding (11), scoring (13) and screaming, as he so often does. And it was Shaun Livingston, a sub once more, with 10 points.

“Klay’s shooting was incredible tonight,” affirmed Kerr. “Then the way Steph finished the game, that step-back shot to put it to a five-point lead, was probably only a shot he can make.

“It was like we were running on fumes a bit at the end, between Draymond’s ankle (Green was limping late in the fourth quarter) and (Andrew) Bogut’s not playing in the second half (he had a strained adductor). But we talk about our depth all the time.”

And display it all the time. “Strength in Numbers” is more than a slogan on all those gold T-shirts given to the fans. Curry was out for three games. Livingston got bounced two games ago on two technicals. Green plays forward — and center. And guard. Andre Iguodala is indispensable. Marreese Speights hit a big three-pointer.

The way the Warriors came back from the huge deficit Monday in game four at Portland — that TV shot of Blazers billionaire owner Paul Allen, who looked like he swallowed a lemon, told it all — one might have figured the Blazers wouldn’t be competitive Wednesday. Wrong, so wrong.

For so long, Portland, with Damian Lillard scoring 28 and C.J. McCollum scoring 27 — add Klay and Steph, and what a foursome of guards — was in charge, going in front by 11 points and hanging tough against a hostile crowd and a favored Warriors team.

“That’s a terrific basketball team,” Kerr said of the Blazers, and he was absolutely right. Portland led at halftime of games two, three, four and five. “That’s a tough team to guard and a tough team to play against.”

So, of course, are the Warriors, with their three All-Stars (Curry, Thompson and Green) and their relentless style. It’s just that against the agile, mobile Blazers, the W’s weren’t always effective with the defense that forces missed shots and enables the W’s to flow.   

“It wasn’t our best stuff,” agreed Kerr, “but we got it done.”

Which is what the best teams do, the best individuals do. Overcome the mistakes, the questionable officiating, the frustration and win.

“We know what it takes to win in the playoffs,” said Thompson. “It’s extremely hard. Give (the Blazers) credit. They’re an offensive powerhouse. It wasn’t an individual thing when Steph went out (with the injury). We did it collectively ... I’m just proud of my focus on defense ... I’m just trying to get myself in the flow of the offense.

“I’m not going to go out there and try and take the ball from Steph when he’s in the zone.”

Which he almost always is.

Kerr on Klay: ‘He was awesome’

By Art Spander

OAKLAND — If Steph were there ... Even Draymond Green, who had yet another triple-double, was moved to consider the impossible.

Yes, agreed Green, if Steph Curry had been in uniform, and not on the bench in that sharp, blue sport coat, the Warriors, Green’s Warriors, Steph’s Warriors, “could go toe-to-toe with anybody on offense and probably have the advantage.”

But it’s also understood that the NBA is a league in which success more often is determined not by who makes baskets than by who is unable to make baskets, determined on defense, as preached by Warriors coach Steve Kerr — and he’s hardly alone — andas displayed by the W’s on Sunday in the first game of the NBA Western Conference semifinals.

Again they didn’t have Curry, as was the case at the end of the first-round series against Houston. But again they did have pressure, smothering the Blazers, who made only five of their 21 shots in the first period, building up a lead that was as large as 20 and winning 118-106.

“Our offense, we had trouble scoring,” confirmed Portland coach Terry Stotts. “Their defense got into us.”

Their defense, the Warriors’ D, was Klay Thompson shadowing Damian Lillard, who scored 30 points but was a mediocre 8 for 26 shooting; it was Green blocking two shots and Andrew Bogut three; and it was Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston hindering passes with their extended reaches.

Yes, Thompson hit his shots, 14 of 28 (7 of 14 on threes), and had a game-high 37 points, needed in the absence of Curry. But it was at the other end of the court where Thompson impressed his coach.

“Not many guys could chase Damian Lillard around for 37 minutes,” said Kerr, “and score 37 points too. Klay is a tremendous two-way player, and this was a really amazing night for him just in terms of his all-around play, and obviously we got a lot of good performances from people. But that’s a big burden to have to play both ways like that.

“He was awesome.”

Thompson was an All-Star. Green, 23 points, 13 rebounds and 11 assists, was an All-Star. Sometimes we forget because of that All-Star and MVP — and product endorser and NBA scoring leader — Steph Curry.

Yet a team is more than one man, even if it’s a man who can throw in 30-foot jumpers in the blink of an eye.

Curry, restricted by that bad right knee, said in a TV interview he would be surprised if he couldn’t return by game three of this series, next Sunday at Portland. Until then, or even then, the Warriors have to do what they’ve been doing, use all their skills.

“Defense is the key against these guys,” said Kerr, knowing full well “these guys” could mean any team in the league.

“They,” Kerr said of the Blazers, “are a tremendous offensive team. They have a great system. They are hard to guard, and they spread out so much with their shooting that there are a lot of open lanes.”

Those lanes were closed Sunday, just as stretches of Interstate 880 are so often. The Warriors chased and harassed. The Warriors stymied and baffled. “We score a lot of points,” Lillard said of himself and teammate C.J. McCollum. “We’ve got to be better offensively if we want to have a chance against this team.”

That doesn’t come easily against the Warriors, schooled in the idea of taking the other team’s mistakes and pushing the ball down the floor. “Our offense,” said Kerr, “comes off movement. We can’t stand around.”

Green rarely is seen standing or heard silent. He’s the voice of the Warriors, cheering, chanting, hollering.  Still, it’s just as much a case of "do as I do" as it is "do as I say." Green leads by admonition. He leads by example.

“I don’t go out there saying, ‘I’ve got to do this, I’ve got to do more of that,’” said Green. “We all have to. Everybody’s got to be more involved on the offensive end. Steph brings so much more to the table that one guy isn’t going to be able to do what he does.

“I just told the guys that we’ve got to come out with a defensive mind-set, and that’s pretty much it. I think we can pretty much just stay solid and get good stuff on the offensive end, but against this team we’ve got to get it done on the defensive end. We’ll get what we need on offense. We did that tonight.”

Absolutely.

S.F. Examiner: Warriors send hapless Rockets home with Curry wearing a suit coat

By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

The next round won’t be this easy. It can’t be. The Warriors are good, very good, record-setting good, and the Houston Rockets were, well, not very good at all. The Rockets probably shouldn’t have been in the playoffs.

For certain they weren’t at all in Wednesday night’s game. Figuratively, of course. Literally, that’s open for debate.

Read the full story here.

©2016 The San Francisco Examiner

S.F. Examiner: With Steph, without Steph, Warriors win as a team

By Art Spander

They missed Steph Curry. What, you thought the Warriors wouldn’t? But the Warriors didn’t set the all-time record for regular-season victories — 73, as you know so well — because they were dependent on only one player, even if he is the MVP.

They are a team, and what they didn’t miss Monday night at Oracle was a chance again to beat the Houston Rockets.

Read the full story.

©2016 The San Francisco Examiner

S.F. Examiner: Thompson hits 40 over 76ers

By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

This isn’t going to last forever, this Warriors brilliance, the winning streaks — 53 in a row at home now — the sublime shooting of Steph and Klay, or is it Klay and Steph? The all-around game of Draymond Green.

The head coach reminded us as much, and around here where we saw the 49ers, Raiders and A’s on top only to tumble, Steve Kerr’s words resonate.

Read the full story here.

©2016 The San Francisco Examiner

Newsday (N.Y.): Golden State MSG-bound as they chase Bulls’ 72-win season

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

OAKLAND, Calif. — The funny thing with the Golden State Warriors is that they love the funny things, the joke video clips, the needling by their coaches. Basketball, even at the highest level, the NBA, is a game to them, a chance to live it up, laugh it up and maybe because of those two factors win, win, win.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2016 Newsday. All rights reserved.

S.F. Examiner: A blur is all Warriors need

By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

Someone shouted, “We’re back.” From where? One defeat? Back? The Warriors never left. They aren’t a basketball team, they’re a human blitz. So they lost a game. That was eons ago, on the road. What they did Wednesday night was what we expect, what all of basketball expects — a thrashing of an opponent.

You don’t watch the Warriors thinking about who’s going to end up ahead. That’s a given. The defeat that ended the season-opening record win streak was the exception that proves the rule. These Warriors are entertainers. These Warriors are 24-1 in 25 games.

Read the full story here.

© 2015 The San Francisco Examiner