It wasn’t just Klay Thompson’s superb performance from beyond the arc against the Los Angeles Lakers — where he scored 33 points on 6-of-10 shooting on threes — that were, in my view, encouraging signs that the Thompson of old was finally starting to emerge from its three-year cocoon.
Two relatively nondescript possessions — considering the context surrounding them (one being that the Warriors were facing a severely depleted Lakers team that had already been eliminated from playoff contention) — came into immediate mind. Both of them weren’t three-point shots.
The first — a run-of-the-mill wide down-screen action for Thompson in early offense:
Two years of NBA-game inactivity born out of two consecutive lower leg injuries can take a massive toll, especially on one’s confidence in terms of mobility.