Warriors even the series behind Thompson’s explosive night

San Francisco – Klay Thompson dropped eight 3’s, scored 30 points to help even the series.  The Warriors shutdown Anthony Davis and beat the Lakers 127-100 in a blowout Game 2. Golden State matched a franchise-playoff high with 21 made threes for the second-consecutive game. 

“Well, that’s the best version of Klay, when he’s really going offensively, but he’s taking great shots. That’s what I liked about tonight,” said Steve Kerr. “I just thought we got really good shots. 21-for-42 from three. Obviously a great percentage, but I think the percentage was a reflection of the clean looks we were getting; the fact that the guys weren’t forcing anything. The ball was moving. They were just moving it to the open guy. And Klay obviously can get really hot, really fast, and it’s more likely to happen when we are moving the ball like we did tonight.”

Thompson recorded his sixth-career playoff game with eight-or-more made threes, the most in NBA history. Ray Allen, Stephen Curry and Damian Lillard are tied for second with four-such games. Tonight marked his 17th career 30-point postseason game.

The Warriors made a 2023-playoff high 50% of their shots from 3-point range (prev. 41.2%, 4/23 vs. SAC). By the third period it was raining 3’s. Five players made shots from the three-point line to make it a 30-point lead over LA.

Steve Kerr talks JaMychal Green and Klay Thompson

Davis was a dominate piece to the Lakers win in Game 1. He smothered the paint, blocked four shots and had 23 rebounds. Tonight was completely the opposite, he finished with 11 points and 6 rebounds. James had 23 points and 7 rebounds. 

“They made their adjustments,” said James. “We knew they were going to do that. That’s what a championship team does. They held serve on their home court tonight. We got to obviously see the adjustments they made, we got to make our adjustments coming into Game 3.”

“Going into half, up 11, went on a run,” Davis said. “Then obviously third quarter, we know they’re a big third quarter team. Came out, had 43 in the third, also 41 in the second. Not like us on the defensive end to give up those type of quarters.”

Draymond Green talks about his improvement on defense

“We played with more force,” said Green. “We played with more force on both sides of the ball. The ball didn’t stick. We moved the ball and got everybody involved in the offense and that was big for us.”

Klay Thompson

JaMychal Green made his first postseason start with Golden State and posted a playoff-career high 15 points. He started in place of Kevon Looney who felt ill right before the game. Draymond Green grabbed 11 rebounds and had 11 points. He posted his 60th career double-double and second of the current postseason. 

The Warriors recorded multiple 40-point quarters in the same playoff game for the first time in franchise history.

Up Next: Golden State will travel to Los Angeles to face the Lakers in Game 3 of the series on Saturday, May 6 at 5:30 p.m.

Photo by Warriors/Twitter

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Kerr’s and Darvin Ham’s press conference

WARRIORS HEAD COACH STEVE KERR

ON THE PASSING OF LANCE BLANKS:

“Lance has been in the NBA for a long time and is a good friend. He was in San Antonio in our front office when I was playing and somebody who’s been in front offices, GM in Phoenix, spent a lot of time in the NBA. We spent time in Basketball Without Borders this past summer together. Just a devastating bit of news today that we received. So I want to offer my condolences to Lance’s family, and all of his friends. He will be missed. It’s a terrible day.”

ON THE BUCKS PARTING WAYS WITH MIKE BUDENHOLZER:

“On the one hand, we all know what we’re getting into when we get into this business. So my first response is not necessarily shock, it’s more disappointment because Bud is a fantastic coach. As you said, just won a championship and has been wildly successful in his coaching career. But this is the business we’re in. Raymond just told me, three of the last four championship coaches have been fired. And it just happens quickly. I mean there are expectations every year for every team are so high and only one team can win. It’s sad news for the coaching profession, but we all believe Bud deserved a lot better. But we also, as I said, are aware that this is a job we chose.”

ON THE ADJUSTMENTS THEY WORKED ON FOR GAME 2:

“Yeah. I mean we pinpoint a lot of things on the film. Nothing that I’m willing to share, of course, but that’s what the off day is all about. Obviously, the Lakers were doing the same thing and they’ll have their own set of adjustments, but we’ve got a few things that we’ll try and we feel good about our ability to adjust, but also about our ability to respond to losing a game and being down in the series. We just went through that being down 2-0 to Sacramento. We lost game one of the Boston series last year in The Finals at home. So this is nothing new for our team. We know what we’re capable of and with all the noise out there, I’m sure people are going to be throwing out the stats about how often the team that loses game one at home loses a series, and none of that matters. So don’t ask me about any of that stuff.”

ON DRAYMOND GREEN ADJUSTMENTS ON OFFENSE AND DEFENSE:

“He’s a Hall of Fame player for a reason. He’s one of the best players in the league. So he watched the film on his own, we watched the film as a team as a coaching staff and there are definitely some areas where he knows he could change his tactics a little bit. I think the third foul hurt him the other night. Hurt him more than it hurt us. I think we were able to withstand his absence but I think it took some of his juice. He wants to be out there so badly and that affected him in the second half. So ideally he’s not getting into foul trouble tonight, makes a few adjustments and I know Draymond, he’ll go out and have a great game.”

LAKERS HEAD COACH DARVIN HAM

ON MIKE BUDENHOLZER BEING FIRED FROM THE BUCKS:

“I mean obviously it’s unfortunate having won a championship with him, and just being with him for nine years, from day one of him being a head coach, him allowing me, myself, and others, Quin (Snyder), Taylor (Jenkins), Kenny (Atkinson) across the hall, going on that initial ride with him and all the growth and everything we experienced together. Also his ability and teaching, allowing guys to be themselves on his staff, his players, being a pro-player coach. Like just the communication, the things I learned from him in terms of dealing with your star players, dealing with the entire roster. Once again, developing a program, just how much he cares, really cares for his players wanting them to be in the best possible zone; spiritually, mentally, physically, in order for them to be able to do what they do at the highest level. Also how he really leaned on his staff and allowed his staff to grow around him and be empowered. He’s more than a friend to me, he’s a brother, I love him. It’s unfortunate, I don’t know, I have my own thoughts but those will stay my own thoughts. I wish him well in his next endeavor and outside the realm of sport, basketball, whatever, him and I are family for life. It’s an unfortunate situation but if I know Bud like I do, he’ll bounce back when he’s ready.”

ON BOTH TEAM’S ADJUSTMENTS FROM GAME 1:

“I mean there’s a lot of that that goes into our coaches’ meetings. Us doing stuff up against the wall, taking a long hard look at what transpired in game one, comparing the note to going into game one to what actually happened in game one. Then what possible adjustments can be made. But you also have to be honest with yourself in terms of allowing things to happen, and just being ready to pivot, and normally that pivot comes within the game too. Not before it starts because at that point it’s all speculation. Anybody that knows me, we think about things, we prepare ourselves for a plan B, plan C, whatever, but I hate speculation. I just like the reality of a situation and being prepared to, again, adjust or audible if needed. But for us we just need to come out and we saw what we needed to do to be successful against this team and we need to come out and try to do it again but even better.”

ON HOW THEY ADJUSTED TO THE WARRIORS’ SMALLER LINEUPS:

“Absolutely, I just think the biggest thing for us, again, is energy, effort, urgency. Possession by possession. We have a solid plan, just the last couple of days of watching film on both sides of the ball, just our heightened awareness of after a make, after a miss us protecting the basket first and foremost but then locating the shooters, guys getting out and in the half court offensively forcing them to play against a set defense. How we do that is be more physical with our screens, really attack the paint, collapse their defense, love and live in the paint, and constantly play downhill. You know when they go to that lineup we have a little bit of a size advantage but you know they’re fast. Their speed is one of a kind and so we definitely, we don’t have the time to—any negative step, or side step, and that step is not geared towards sprinting back the other way, they’ll burn you. We got a little bit of a taste of that when they went with that lineup but again, we just have to force our will even more, and be even better with what it is we’re trying to do.”

Malaika Bobino

Malaika Bobino, an Oakland, California native, is a Bay Area sports journalism powerhouse and influencer. With nearly two decades of experience at both the Oakland Post and the Huffington Post, she is always on the front lines of the iconic Bay Area sports scene. Bobino covered the Oakland A’s postseason trips, all three of the San Francisco Giants World Series, was present for all three Golden State Warriors three NBA Championships and covered the 49ers last two Super Bowl appearances

Previous Post
Next Post

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.