Klay Thompson was supposed to pass the ball. But shooters shoot.
Thompson returned to the floor Sunday at Chase Center for his first NBA game action since Game 6 of the 2019 Finals. While it looked like Steve Kerr drew up a play for Klay on the team's first offensive possession, coach actually wanted him to keep passing the ball.
Following the Warriors' 96-82 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Klay Day, his Splash Brother Steph Curry shared details about how the play went down.
Thompson started out in the corner, before breaking off a Juan Toscano-Anderson screen and getting the ball near the top of the key. He promptly dribbled through traffic and hit a tough floater to record his first bucket in 941 days.
"[Kerr] drew up a play to use Klay as kind of a decoy to take a little bit of pressure off," Curry said. "There was a second option where I was supposed to come off of a screen. Then as [Kerr] was drawing it up, he didn't even finish writing it up the play, Klay was like, 'No, can we switch it to the other side?' Because he likes coming off that way for catch-and-shoot. Then coach kind of stumbled, like, 'No, there's another option at the end.'"
During his pregame press conference, Kerr anticipated Klay Day could present a challenging atmosphere with so much emotion going into the game. So he figured he might take the load off Klay by setting him up for an assist to Steph for a three. Klay said 'nah.'
"I shoulda known better," Kerr said.
Thompson thought he could have been on the verge of an epic scoring night, but finished with 17 points in his historic and memorable comeback.
"I was so excited and I saw a lane to the basket that I took the opportunity," Thompson said. "It was a really tough floater. After that went in I thought it might have been one of those nights where I was unconscious, but missed a few shots after that, might have been some jitters. I'm just so happy right now. I did not shoot as well as I wanted to. But I'm just so happy I can look at the stat sheet and see my name there."
Thompson was joined by Curry, Draymond Green, Andrew Wiggins and Kevon Looney in Sunday’s starting lineup. But Green’s start was merely ceremonial, as he suffered a calf injury in warmups and was promptly removed from the game after seven seconds.
Thompson had a quick trigger Sunday, as he went 1-for-5 in his initial run with the Warriors, which lasted 4:23 in the first quarter. In his second stint on the floor, Thompson splashed his first 3-pointer and threw down this menacing dunk.
Judging from the early returns, Klay still has his shot and plenty of bounce.
