So much for Draymond Green losing his clout in the Golden State Warriors' locker room after his preseason punch to Jordan Poole.
The Warriors put together perhaps their finest performance of the season on Friday at Chase Center, beating the New York Knicks 111-101 in a wire-to-wire victory. The biggest story from a true team effort in every sense of the phrase was Klay Thompson, who showed signs of breaking out of an early-season slump with 20 points on 8-of-16 shooting—the first time he's shot 50% or better in 2022-23.
After the game, Thompson revealed that a players-only meeting on Friday morning helped reinvigorate the team after its dispiriting loss to the Phoenix Suns two nights earlier. Who led the gathering? Green, of course.
“Very constructive meeting. Draymond definitely held the floor,” Thompson said. “He's such a great motivator, so we all responded really well. Just looking forward to starting a new win streak.”
The Warriors' loudmouth team leader went out of his way to share a one-on-one chat with the struggling Thompson, too.
“Me and Draymond had a great conversation this morning,” Thompson added. “He just told me to be patient and trust the team. I thought I exemplified that tonight.”
No doubt.
As Dub Nation calls for Jordan Poole to start, beat reporter @armstrongwinter explains why Klay Thompson must remain in the opening five—and make major changes to his game.https://t.co/cf9gW1ZqTr
— Warriors Nation (@WarriorNationCP) November 17, 2022
The floodgates still haven't opened for Thompson, and perhaps never will to the extent they often did prior to his two-and-a-half season injury absence.
But the way he played against New York—making the extra pass, passing up good looks of his own to create great ones for his teammates—was exactly the more measured offensive approach that will make Golden State better even as Thompson waits for his jumper to finally live up to his status as one of the greatest shooters ever.
“[Team meetings] can be very useful, and we thought that this morning was an incredible time of growth for the whole team,” Thompson said. “Some early-season adversity is right in front of us, and what's most important about that is how we respond, and I thought we responded very well tonight. We played that Warriors brand of basketball that has made us the best team of the decade.”
We'll see if Klay Thompson, Green and the defending champs can sustain it on Sunday against the rebuilding Houston Rockets.
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