On January 10, Klay Thompson finally returned to the NBA after 941 days, and before the game, Cole made it clear that he would let Thompson start and play 15-20 minutes. Before the game began, Thompson warmed up and hit 6 consecutive shots, and the Warriors' first goal in the first quarter of the game was contributed by Thompson, and Thompson made 1 of 5 in the entire first quarter, with a poor shooting percentage, but the running was positive and the body was fully recovered.
Entering the second quarter, Thompson did not disappoint the 20,000 fans who came to support him, sent a violent dunk, completely ignited the Warriors' home passion, and then hit the iconic three-pointer, completely announcing his return. With seven points scored in three rounds, Thompson also broke a personal milestone record, scoring more than 12,000 points in his career, and on comeback night, Thompson also set a record. It is worth mentioning that Thompson could have broken the record of 12,000 points 2 years ago, but he was helpless to postpone it for 2 years because of injury, but it is believed that Klay, who remains healthy in the future, will break more scoring records.
By the third quarter of the tournament, Thompson hit another three-pointer, a goal that brought his personal three-point total to 1,800. After completing the two new personal milestones, Thompson directly twisted his mouth to celebrate, looking very dragged, but the opponent could not help him. After playing the first three quarters, Thompson made 6 of 13, hit 2 three-pointers, scored 14 points, and after 1 of 6, it was 7 of 5, Thompson announced his official return!
Thompson's return is an important node for the Warriors, in the past period of time, due to the high intensity of consumption, Curry's physical strength problems, and then affect the personal three-point feeling, the past two games only 19 of 2, expanded to the past month's 16 games, Curry's shooting rate is only 36.7%, is the worst performance of the entire career. Kerr overuses Curry in order to maintain the output of the offensive end, and now that Klay Thompson is back, this problem will naturally be solved, and healthy Thompson is one of the best active shooters in the league, and can even be said to be the top five level shooters in history, which can greatly alleviate Curry's offensive pressure and make the Warriors' system run more smoothly.
From the data point of view, the game only in the first quarter of Curry hit 4 three-pointers, shooting 5 of 4, Thompson's comeback completely released Curry, the two historical level shooters once again joined hands, from 2014 to 2019, they joined hands for 5 years and 3 crowns, 5 consecutive years to reach the Finals, is the strongest backcourt partner in the NBA in the same period. So far this season, the Warriors have the second place in the league, and they have begun to restore the competitiveness of the old dynasty, and when Thompson returns with full blood, I believe that the Warriors will be even more terrible and will once again attack the championship!
(Lin Xiaoxiang)