SAN FRANCISCO — Klay Thompson can still remember it clearly.
More than a decade ago, on the night of Nov. 10, 2012, he left Oracle Arena in Oakland wearing his jersey after the game, still fuming about a couple of missed free throws in crunch time. Had he sunk his two shots from the charity stripe that night with 13 seconds left in overtime, he would have made it a four-point game. Alas, he missed them both and kept the door open for the Denver Nuggets, who went on to win in double OT.
So when Klay saw Jordan Poole down Wednesday night after the fourth-year guard had a key gaffe in the final seconds of the stunning 122-119 loss to the Detroit Pistons, the Warriors star could relate.
Poole looks like a rising star, but he can still stumble on his own feet at times, literally and figuratively. He has so much sauce that he can get lost in it.
With eight seconds left in the game, Poole squared up his defender Alec Burks at the 3-point line. He shuffled his feet and tried to deke Burks with a right-to-left crossover, but he tumbled to the ground and the ball popped loose into the hands of the Pistons. Detroit would go on to win in epic fashion, as Saddiq Bey sank a buzzer-beating trifecta after Klay hit a game-tying 3-pointer with 2.1 seconds left.
Despite the outcome, Klay said he believes Poole is built for those moments.
“I told (Poole) in the locker room, there’s a reason why I threw him the ball towards the end of regulation is because he’s like that,” Thompson said. “He’s a clutch player. He’s a shot creator. We would not have been on this win streak without him. We all go through those lapses early in our career. I remember missing two free throws against the Nuggets in my second year and just leaving the arena in my uniform. We all gotta go through it. Steph (Curry) went through it. Jordan, we’re gonna continue to trust him with the ball in his hands, because he’s an engine that makes us go.”
Without Curry, Poole has had the ball in his hands even more than usual as a starter. But in the past 10 games in his expanded role, Poole has turned the ball over 48 times (4.8 per game). In all, Poole leads the NBA in total turnovers (138) but ranks 10th in the league (3.5) on a per game basis.
The upside? Games like last week against the Charlotte Hornets, when his highlight handle stole the show in the clutch. The downside? Episodes like Wednesday night.
“Jordan’s made so many big plays for us and helped us win so many games,” coach Steve Kerr said. “What’s great is that everything is a learning experience for him at this stage of his career.”
This isn’t the first time Poole had a hiccup in a high-leverage moment. At the top of mind is his fumbled inbounds pass in Utah on Dec. 7, which came in the final seconds and allowed the Jazz to pull off a remarkable comeback. Heck, even in Monday’s double overtime loss against the Atlanta Hawks, Poole dribbled the ball off his legs with 12.1 seconds left and it went out of bounds.
If it weren’t for Donte DiVincenzo’s game-tying 3-pointer at the end of regulation, we could easily be talking about two straight losses where Poole played a central role. But the good clearly outweighs the bad, as Poole has helped carry the offense, averaging 28.6 points per game in the 10 contests since Steph Curry has been sidelined. Golden State is 6-4 in those games, where Andrew Wiggins has also been out.
Don’t expect the Warriors to shy away from Poole in crunch time.
“You just tell him it’s going to be all right and continue to work hard,” Thompson said. “There’s a reason he’s an NBA champion. We would not have that banner without Jordan’s efforts. So, it’s just about sticking to the process and working your absolute hardest and work will reveal itself.”
