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Klay Thompson was forced to watch his Golden State Warriors from the sidelines as they survived a pivotal 109-104 Game 2 on the road, tying the Toronto Raptors in the NBA Finals as the series swings back home.
The sharpshooting guard had a team-leading 25 points before departing early in the fourth quarter with a pulled hamstring, watching from the bench as his teammates held on to a late lead.
“I’m proud of them,” Thompson told Sam Amick of The Athletic. “It wasn’t pretty, but you do it by whatever means necessary. They just played as a team, man. The freaking resiliency is unbelievable.”
Klay Thompson especially struggled watching his teammates from the sidelines, as there's yet to be an injury severe enough to keep him from playing.
The marksman sustained a similar scare in last year's Finals, when J.R. Smith clipped him after a 3-point attempt, putting his health for the rest of the series in question. Thompson finished that game, though noticeably laboring, and even managed to suit up for the next, despite clear bruising in his ankle.
While a hamstring is a different monster, he doesn't expect it to be any different this time around.
“I think I’ll be all right,” he said. “It’s the freaking Finals, man. It’s never going to be pretty. We’ll see. I’m going to just rest tonight and reset my mind, man. It’s hard.”
Thompson has yet to miss a playoff game throughout his NBA career and he's had an unquestioned pain tolerance when it comes to suiting up at the big stage.
Short of being a wheelchair, it's likely he'll do his best to suit up for Wednesday's Game 3.
