2022 NBA Finals: Klay Thompson Must Step Up For Warriors

The Golden State Warriors defeated the Boston Celtics in Game 2 of the NBA Finals on Sunday night, but Klay Thompson struggled for the second straight game, casting doubt on his ability to impact this series.

Brett Siegel | Jun 7, 2022

2022 NBA Finals: Klay Thompson Must Step Up For Warriors /

The journey Klay Thompson has been on over the last three years has been one of the craziest comeback stories for any NBA player in the league’s history.

His redemption arc though is not yet completed.

For him, the only satisfaction he wants and needs is to win another title with the Golden State Warriors. After taking Game 2 on Sunday night over the Boston Celtics, Klay and the Warriors are now just three wins away from turning dreams into reality once more.

Golden State missed the playoffs the last two seasons and Klay Thompson missed the last two regular seasons due to a torn left ACL in the 2019 NBA Finals, followed by a torn right Achilles during his rehab following the 2019-20 season.

Making his return to the court back in January, Thompson may not be 100% yet after missing over 900 days of action, but now in the NBA Finals, he really has a chance to prove himself.

So far, Thompson’s impact has been felt defensively for the Warriors, however, he has struggled against Boston through two games on the offensive-end of the floor.

Scoring 15 points in Game 1 and 11 points in Game 2, Thompson is averaging 13.0 points, 2.5 rebounds and is shooting 32% from the floor, 27.7% from three-point range against the Celtics in the NBA Finals this year.

With this series now tied up at 1-1 heading to Boston, the Warriors have a prime opportunity to not only reclaim home court advantage in the series, but possibly steal both games on the road to take a 3-1 lead before heading back to San Francisco with a chance to possibly claim their fourth title in the last eight seasons should they take both road games coming up.

In order to do so, Klay Thompson must step up for Golden State and everyone knows this, including Thompson.

“It’s nothing I’m not used to,” Thompson said on Tuesday in regards to his lack of scoring on the offensive-end of the floor in this series. “I’ve been through shooting slumps before and the best part is how you respond. So, come Game 3, I’m probably not going to do much differently, rather just play with great pace and hunt great shots because when I tend to do that, I tend to have a big night.

“Most importantly, you know, it feels good going 4-19 and winning by 20. I rather do that than go 13-19 and lose by 10.”

While reporters and journalists tend to be very rash when it comes to giving their opinions on how players perform in games and while Klay Thompson has been under fire recently because of his play, the veteran All-Star does not let anything get to him.

Over the last two years, Thompson has been through a lot not only physically, but mentally as well. He knows what he is capable of doing and heading into Game 3, the Boston Celtics should definitely be a little concerned because they know Klay Thompson is going to break out in a big way soon.

“I'll probably just YouTube 'Game 6 Klay' because there's some very high pressurized situations I was in and I ended up shooting the ball well," Thompson went on to say Tuesday. "When you can do it when your back is up against the wall, you know you can do it at any given moment."

Defensively, the Celtics are going to have to be ready for it because when Klay starts getting things going from beyond-the-arc, this Warriors team is extremely difficult to guard given of all the extra weapons they have to play around with.

So far in this series, Klay Thompson has been neutralized and has not found his shot, but sooner or later, things will begin clicking for him again.

To win this series and claim another title, Thompson must prove that he is still an All-Star-level talent and on the road in Boston for Games 3 and 4, there is not better opportunity for Klay to break out of his slump and elevate his team to the championship-level we are used to seeing from the Warriors.

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