Warriors aren’t worried about Thompson’s poor shooting

In the NBA Finals, Golden State Warriors’ player Klay Thompson has only converted 26% of his three-point attempts over Games 1 and 2 against the Boston Celtics. That may seem like a troubling statistic, unless you know how Thompson’s patterns work. Steph Curry, who has played alongside Thompson since 2011, knows how he functions and isn’t worried about it in the least.

“History with him has shown there’s no predictor,” said Curry. “He’s always just found a way to get himself going, especially in the playoffs. Just to make an impact that’s loud. Usually it’s really loud.”

It’s true that Thompson has a history of poor shooting performances in the postseason, only to come back and have an explosive night to make up for it. You could see it in the Western Conference Finals when the Warriors played the Dallas Mavericks. Thompson was shooting just 7-of-24 from beyond the arc, and over the first four games, he never made even 20 points. Then came Game 5. Klay shot 8-of-16 from deep and put up 32 points to seal the series win.

“I’m not particularly concerned about it because this isn’t the first time it’s happened,” Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said. “Klay has a way of responding to mini slumps or whatever you want to call them.”

Game 3 is on tonight, Wednesday June 8th at 9 p.m. ET in Boston. The Warriors would probably feel a lot better if Thompson could manage to have that explosive game tonight rather than waiting for Game 5, but either way, they know it’s coming at some point.

“Come Game 3, I’ll probably not do much differently rather than just play with great pace and hunt great shots,” said Thompson. “When I tend to do that, I tend to have a big night.”