Kevin Durant was unequivocal in his belief that Golden State Warriors teammate Klay Thompson should be deserving of an All-Defensive team mention. Thompson is fresh off putting the clamps on Durant's former teammate, Russell Westbrook, who was limited to a 2-of-16 shooting night against the Warriors on Saturday.
“Yeah, but the people that vote on that don’t really know the game,” said Durant when asked of Thompson's chances, according to Connor LeTourneau of the San Francisco Chronicle.
Head coach Steve Kerr went out of his way to say Thompson was deserving of an All-Defensive team honor as well, making this a song the Warriors have belted for a while now.
Durant has been praising Thompson for his defense ever since seeing it with his very eyes in practice on the regular. KD also saw it during the many matchups the Warriors had against the Thunder back in the day.
“Russ usually had his way against guards that were smaller than him. But you put a 6-foot-5, 6-foot-6 dude on him, it just made it tougher for him,” Kevin Durant said of Klay Thompson around this time last year, according to Mark Medina of The Mercury News. “I’m not saying Klay is a total lockdown (defender) and closes everything down. That’s hard to do in this league. But he makes it tough on you and he makes you shoot tough shots.”
On Saturday night, with the eyes of ABC viewers fixated on Westbrook, Thompson looked every bit the lockdown defender, forcing the 2017 MVP into uber-tough shots and staying true to the scouting report that begs to stay away from a jump-shooting Westbrook:
https://twitter.com/dkurtenbach/status/1107187407462359040?s=20
Thompson doesn't have the sexy stats or the high steal count that Defensive Player of the Year candidate Paul George has, but he's all about working smarter, not harder, while giving his assignment headaches throughout the game.
The numbers might not help Thompson in this regard, but the eye test surely doesn't lie, making him one of the most feared and cerebral wing defenders in the league.
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