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Klay Thompson went 3-of-13 from the field on Friday night against the Cleveland Cavaliers, missing all but one of his two-point tries and going 2-of-7 from beyond the arc. His nine points in the Golden State Warriors' hard-fought 106-101 win marked the seventh time this season Thompson has finished a game with at least as many field goal attempt as points.
Needless to say, Thompson hasn't exactly lived up his billing as one of the several greatest shooters of all time in the early going of 2022-23. Don't count Steve Kerr among the growing legion of those worried about his trajectory, though.
After the game, Kerr explained why overwhelming number of Thompson's misses this season have come up short, expressing utmost confidence that the four-time champion will eventually find his stroke.
“Most of them are short. The vast majority of his misses are short right now, and that usually just points to the legs,” Kerr said. “He's been working hard, and obviously got a slow start to camp and it's affecting him. But he's getting his legs underneath him. I thought his defense was fantastic down the stretch. He did a great job on Donovan Mitchell.”
Thompson's effectiveness checking Mitchell down the stretch deserves a bit more scrutiny than Kerr provided. There were multiple possessions in crunch-time the Cavaliers' newest star rejected ball screens with quick crossovers, leaving Thompson in the dust for straight-line drives that yielded a bucket or free throw attempts.
He was similar prey for De'Aaron Fox late in the Warriors' victory over the Sacramento Kings on Monday.
Still, Kerr knows his players better than anyone, and just the fact Thompson is no longer subject to a loose minutes restriction indeed suggests better times lie ahead. Remember, he didn't play 5-on-5 all summer, only first scrimmaging with his teammates less than a week before the regular season tipped off. Thompson has notched at least 29 minutes in his last six games, evidence that his prescribed ramp-up is over.
When will his jumper start to to fall? Even if Thompson doesn't burst out of his slump with splash after splash, he's bound to start shooting better soon. Thompson is at just 29.3% accuracy on catch-and-shoot triples, per NBA.com/stats, and an unbelievable 22.7% mark on three-point attempts where the closest defender is at least six feet away.
The dam on Klay Thompson's shot will break soon, basically, no matter the initial size of the leak. Kerr knows it, too.
“It's just a matter of time for Klay,” he said, “before everything comes together.”
