By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
A brilliant performance by Klay Thompson sent the Golden State Warriors to a win on the road, after eight losses in a row to start the 2022-23 NBA Regular Season.
“It’s just something for me to build on. I was really wanting a game like this, so it felt great for me to just let that thing fly and play with a free mind,” he mentioned after getting the job done against the Houston Rockets, “It just felt good having a big game.”
Thompson, 32, poured a season-high 41 points behind 10/13 triples with three long-range shots connected down the stretch of the tight contest. Highlighting the overall scoring table of the latest edition of NBA Sundays, he produced his 15th career 40-point game. “I don’t care if it’s a mid-November game, that felt great,” he stressed.
The previous 40-point showing powered the Warriors over the New Orleans Pelicans in the last game of the 2021-22 Regular Season and clinched the third seed of the Western Conference. His side went on to win the seventh championship in franchise history. That game also marked the last regular-season win away from home with the team coached by Steve Kerr missing out eight times all the way to Houston.
The four-time NBA champion is averaging 17.3 points per game making 37.7% of his three-point attempts this season but is up to 30.5 points per game and 60.9% beyond the arc over his last two outings, attached to wins against the Rockets and New York Knicks. But according to the load management plan followed by the Warriors this season, he is expected to sit out the bottom end of the back-to-back culminating in New Orleans Monday night.
Improved to 8-9, the defending NBA champions are half a win behind the Play-In zone and two wins away from the Playoffs zone of the Western Conference.
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