Earlier today, the Warriors away to meet the Hawks, although the team lost 110-121, but this game the Warriors backcourt core Klay Thompson finally regained the original offensive and defensive nature, this battle Klay started 40 minutes, 26 shots 14 (9 of 16 three-pointers), cut 37 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists and 1 block, not only in the offensive end of the aggressive end, even in the defensive end, in the case of the opponent's number one attacker Trae Young, basically did not lose position, Makoto also scored 33 points, 4 rebounds and 15 assists with a high accuracy of 12 of 20, but in the direct confrontation with Klay, Trae Young did not have any advantage at all.
In the past two seasons, Klay, who has not been able to play because of ACL rupture and Achilles tendon tearing, has finally ushered in a long-lost comeback this season, the first game of Clay's comeback on January 10, facing the Cavaliers in only 19 minutes of playing time, it cut 17 points, 3 rebounds and 1 block, showing good competitiveness at both ends of the offensive and defensive ends, but as the season deepens, Clay pays more and more attention to finding the feel on the offensive end, thus ignoring the previous defense, which is also criticized by everyone. Think Clay has become a heavy attack and light defender.
As of now, Clay can average 18.7 points, 4 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game in 28.4 minutes of playing time, but the number of steals of 0.6 is the worst value of his career. Admittedly, Clay's defensive efficiency this season is only 108.4, and if you don't count Chiosa and Witherspoon, who are not playing much, Clay is the worst defensive efficiency of the whole team.
But in the case of real alignment with the star, Clay can still use his height and long arms to limit the opponent's attack by virtue of his height and arm length (height 1 meter 98, arm span to 2 meters 06). According to relevant statistics, in the 2 games against Timberwolves main guard De Angelo Russell this season (a total of 4 minutes and 18 seconds), Klay let the latter shoot 5 and only rely on free throws to score 2 points. And the lone ranger's star Luka Doncic also did not fish for good fruit under his position, the latter also played 2 games with him, in 3 minutes and 49 seconds, Doncic only hit 2 goals in 7 shots, only 5 points were scored.
Can make the two All-Star players so frustrated, Clay's defense is really not as bad as everyone thinks, and not only the backcourt players, in the face of a taller than his No. 3, 4 swing forwards, Clay is also not downwind, according to relevant statistics, this season and Clay's second most time player is the Nuggets Aaron Gordon (the first is the Lakers' Westbrook), but under Clay's close defense, Gordon only hit 1 goal in 4 shots, only 2 points were recorded, To know that Gordon is better than Clay in both height and weight (2 meters 03 tall, weighing 106KG), it is indeed not easy to limit Gordon to this way for a player who has just recovered from two major injuries.
So Warriors fans should not be too harsh on Clay, it is already a luxury to be able to gradually find the state he once was on the offensive end, and on the defensive end, Klay, who knows that this is also his best skill, believes that it will not be so easy to abandon, what we need to do is to give Clay patience, let him slowly recover, I believe that after that he will definitely find the kind of attack and defense that he had before the big injury.