SAN FRANCISCO — Klay Thompson got here whistling down the hallway towards the Warriors’ locker room, striding forward of coach Steve Kerr and sounding like he didn’t have a care on this planet.
Pay no fear to Thompson making solely 4-of-19 pictures Sunday evening and simply 1-of-8 from 3-point vary?
Effectively, what mattered most was the Warriors profitable 107-88 to even the NBA Finals at 1-1 earlier than flying to Boston for Video games 3 and 4.
Thompson’s solely 3-pointer positive mattered, too.
“It was simply good for our power to get him going and see that ball undergo the rim,” middle Kevon Looney mentioned.
It got here on the onset of the Warriors’ third-quarter surge, which they used to parlay a 52-50 halftime lead into an 87-64 cushion getting into the fourth quarter.
Thompson, off a Draymond Inexperienced help, pulled up on the left wing and drilled a 25-foot jumper for a 59-52 lead, about 2 1/2 minutes into the third quarter.
“We feed off it. When Klay hits pictures, it will get us going,” Inexperienced mentioned. “Good to see him knock that shot down and it began a run for us.”
By no means thoughts that Thompson had simply missed two pictures earlier after halftime, together with a reverse layup that by no means drew iron and dropped him to 1-of-10 from the ground.
“Getting them clear appears towards a protection like that's robust,” Looney mentioned, “So after we get some free straightforward ones, he made it, it obtained the entire workforce going, and I feel we type of fed off that power.”
As soon as Thompson’s 3-pointer fell, he celebrated as loudly because the Chase Heart crowd. The Celtics, in flip, known as a timeout to strive slowing the prepare that might not cease.
Extra 3-pointers got here in a flurry from the Warriors — three from Steph Curry, one from Otto Porter Jr. (to offset Jayson Tatum’s on the opposite finish) after which back-to-back bombs from Jordan Poole to shut the quarter.
Thompson missed his closing trio of 3-point makes an attempt and 2-of-8 pictures, however nobody was stunned — nor bothered — that he saved capturing.
On to the subsequent shot, on to the subsequent sport.
That’s why he seemed as cool and composed as standard as he calmly strode performed the hall to the locker room after the win. He made that stroll considerably solitarily, at the least in comparison with the teammates’ in his wake.
For instance, Juan Toscano-Anderson hollered time and again that it was “an ideal day to be a Warrior!” Then got here Curry with 4 cameras documenting each transfer and phrase, about now taking the present on the street. Inexperienced adopted and informed the digital camera on him the way it was “essential to not go on the street down 0-2.”
Inexperienced, on the postgame podium, learn Thompson’s state line and mentioned his long-time teammate “had a tricky one, however that occurs. We all know he’ll make pictures as this collection continues to go on.”
Total, Thompson missed 15 pictures, his most in a NBA Finals sport and his third-most in 141 profession playoff video games. Though he missed 17 in a 2016 conference-finals win at Oklahoma Metropolis, he additionally made 14 and scored 41 factors; he missed 16 pictures in a 2018 conference-semifinal win over New Orleans. His coldest capturing evening in a NBA Finals sport was a 3-of-16 exhibiting (0-for-5 on 3-pointers) in a 2017 Sport 1 win over Cleveland.
After a surprising collapse in Thursday’s Sport 1, the Warriors and Thompson obtained to have fun their first NBA Finals win since Sport 5 of 2019, when Thompson made 7-of-13 3-point makes an attempt in that victory at Toronto.
Up by 25 factors with 6 1/2 minutes to go Sunday evening, Thompson was the one Warriors’ starter nonetheless on the courtroom. Maybe he was left looking for his groove on this grandest of stage, the place he yearned to return after two years of grueling rehabilitation from knee and Achilles accidents.
Now the Warriors — and Thompson — are one win nearer to their fourth NBA championship since 2015.
No win is ho-hum at this degree. For Thompson, it elicited a low-key whistle as he strode forward of coach Steve Kerr into the locker room. Thompson hit the notes together with his melody, similar to he hit a key 3-point shot throughout this sport’s turning level.