On Sunday, Klay Thompson played in his 109th straight playoff game. But, ever the philosopher, the Warriors’ All-Star guard turned his significant accomplishment into the most matter-of-fact logic.
“I’ve never missed a playoff game,” he said, shrugging as he put on his watch. “I’m not starting now.”
For perspective on any of Thompson’s accomplishments, he is the wrong person to ask. To really understand Thompson and what he just pulled off, again, leave it to Andre Iguodala to capture an accurate reaction after the Warriors’ 104-100 win over the Rockets at Oracle Arena in Game 1 of the second round of this year’s playoffs.
“He don’t miss no fukking games,” Iguodala said, shaking his head with a look of bewilderment on his face as he put on his blue polo. “I mean, shyt. … That’s tough.”
Thompson sprained his ankle in the third quarter of Game 6 against the Clippers. Then after the game it swelled up like a puff pastry. When the Warriors landed in Oakland on Friday night, after flying from Los Angeles,Thompson’s ankle was so weak he was dragging his right foot like someone was hanging onto it. By Saturday night, he was suddenly getting an MRI.
And through it all, Thompson treated the injured wheel like a hangnail. “I’ll be fine” is what he told everyone who asked. As bad as his prospects for playing seemed, no one was surprised that when the Western Conference semifinals tipped off, Thompson was on the court.
Iguodala understands the difficulty of being as reliable as Thompson. In five of his first six seasons in Philadelphia, Iguodala didn’t miss a game. The one year he did, he missed just six during the regular season.
“Whenever you evaluate a basketball player,” Iguodala said, diving into his explanation about what makes Thompson so tough, “ask yourself: ‘Why does he play?’ It will tell you a lot about a player. Does he play for the money? For the fame? For the attention? Because he likes it? Because he loves it?
“Klay just loves hooping. ‘What else I’mma do?’ That’s what he probably thinks. ‘Man, I don’t want to sit out there watching. That shyt’s boring.’ You know how he is. So it just builds that in your DNA. That’s who he is.”
Thompson is cut from a different cloth. He is a throwback to the days when leather wasn’t synthetic and whiskey was the preferred pain killer. Every old-school player screaming for the new generation to get off his lawn should nod his cap to Thompson, who reps the OGs well with his stubbornness.
In the biggest series of the season, Thompson didn’t even consider missing the game. And his presence was indeed felt as the Warriors went up 1-0 on the Rockets. This was the game for Houston to get, too. The Warriors were playing on fewer than 48 hours of rest, having just bounced the Clippers on Friday, and playing an afternoon game, which is usually an impediment. And it wasn’t just Thompson playing through a tender ankle, so was Stephen Curry. Meanwhile, the Rockets were rested.
Still, the Warriors gutted it out, in part because Thompson did. As he always does.
He’s been kneed in the head by then-Rockets forward Trevor Ariza, back in 2015, so hard that blood dripped from his ears and he threw up after the game from the concussion.
He’s had a diving J.R. Smith crash into his legs, in Game 1 of the Finals last year, so recklessly that Thompson was lucky to have a high ankle sprain and not an ACL tear.
Now, Thompson’s had his right ankle literally touch the ground, a roll severe enough to make Curry wince.
And none of it has kept him from taking the court.
“I don’t know how he played on his ankle last year,” Kevon Looney said. “He just finds a way to play. I’ve seen his finger pop out of place and he puts it back together and comes back and shoots 3s. That’s just Klay.”
On March 13, 2012, the Warriors traded Monta Ellis for Andrew Bogut. That night in Sacramento, Thompson became the Warriors’ starting shooting guard. Since then, including that game against the Kings, the Warriors have had 712 games, including the playoffs. Thompson has played in 686 of them.
That is 96.3 percent of the games.
By comparison, Curry has played in 85.4 percent of the Warriors’ games in the same span, playing in 74 fewer games than Thompson. Draymond Green, also reliably available for the Warriors, has been on the court for 92.5 percent of the Warriors’ games since he became the full-time starter in 2014-15. He’s only missed one of the 109 playoff games (Game 5 of the 2016 NBA Finals when he was suspended).
What is absurd about Thompson’s persistent availability is his role on the Warriors. On Sunday, his value was on full display.
He played 41 minutes, 23 seconds — only Durant played more minutes, from either team — of intense defense. Thompson defended two of the most talented and trickiest offensive players in the league, in addition to holding his ground when switched onto bigger and stronger players. And he still was able to look for his shot. He finished 5 for 13, making two of his 3-point attempts, but he seemed to have no problem getting the looks he wanted posting up Chris Paul and hunting for 3-pointers in transition.
There was absolutely no sign that Thompson even had ankle issues. Thompson can’t have his own “Flu Game” because injuries just don’t phase him. He won’t have an “I’m Here! I’m Back” moment because he never leaves.
And, just like he was against the Clippers, Thompson was especially swaggy on Sunday. Lots of chirping. Lots of struttin’. Visible emotion on great plays and frustrating mistakes.
In the fourth quarter, he was going for it. He rattled out a 3-pointer that would’ve given the Warriors some much-needed cushion. The Warriors got the rebound and gave it right back to him, and he pulled a corner 3-pointer. He just knew it was in, holding his follow through as it rimmed out. He wanted that one badly.
“I saw him a couple times after a couple of questionable foul calls or whatever getting real amped,” Curry said. “And I don’t know who he was talking to, whether he’s talking to himself or whatever. But I like the engaged Klay, whatever that means, where we see his passion and his awareness of what’s going on. And you can see how much playing well and being in those moments means to him for sure. But I don’t know who he’s talking to or if it’s trash talk or whatever. But it’s just an engaged Klay that we need.”
After logging the most minutes he’s played in a game so far this postseason, after chasing around Harden and Paul, after trying unsuccessfully to regain the accuracy on his shooting stroke, Thompson had one more challenge. It looked pretty tough.
Sitting at his locker Sunday, leaning over, he slid a colorful Stance sock over his right foot. The heavy wrap underneath the sock made it look as if Thompson had cankles. He pulled up his pants leg a little and endeavored the challenge of getting his foot into his shoe. He had to loosen the laces to the max, turning his white leather Ralph Laurens into a slip-on.
“Oh look. It fits,” Thompson said. “Let’s go.”
Fitting that shoe was probably the only uncertainty he’s had during this entire ankle scare.
— Reported from Oakland
(Photo: Noah Graham/NBAE via Getty Images)
