» INJURY REST MAY HAVE DONE THOMPSON GOOD

OAKLAND — Klay Thompson suffered a fractured right thumb in March. It might have been a lucky break. Thompson is shooting the lights out as the Warriors head to San Antonio with a 2-0 lead in this first-round series. And coach Steve Kerr credited Thompson’s bum thumb for providing an unexpected payoff.

“The injury may have helped him a little bit,” Kerr said after Thompson’s 31-point barrage Monday night. “He finally got some time off.

“Klay has to defend the opponent’s best guard night-in, night-out. He never misses a game . ... So I think in hindsight, it probably wasn’t the worst thing for him to get a few weeks off because he looks really, really fresh and sharp right now.”

Heading into Game 3 on Thursday at the AT&T Center, Thompson keeps springing loose off screens or simply running himself open. “He anchors our offense a lot of the time just with his movement,” Warriors guard Shaun Livingston said.

Give him an inch and he’ll shoot from a mile. Through two games, Thompson is 23 for 33 (.697) from the field, including 10 of 14 (.714) on 3-point shots. Even by Splash Brother standards, that’s no drop in the bucket. And in the San Antonio locker room, some heads are shaking.

“Very, very difficult . ... He doesn’t need any airspace to get the shot up,” said Pau Gasol, the Spurs center. “He hits it on the move and releases it from really high, so it’s very hard to contest. When he hits those shots consistently like he has been the last two games, it’s tough, right?”

Spurs big man LaMarcus Aldridge put it this way: “He’s a tough cover. He’s a big-time shooter.”

Thompson, 28, played in 73 games during the regular season, his fewest since the 66 he played as a rookie. He missed nine games this year because of the thumb injury, watching from the sidelines from March 14-29.

The Warriors went 3-5 in his absence, but now he’s providing a reminder of his value. With a team-high 75 minutes in this series, he’s averaging 29.0 points and has a plus/minus of +19.0.

“When he shoots the ball, I’m confident that he’ll knock it down,” Warriors forward Kevin Durant said. “I kind of expect it now. I have high expectations for Klay.”

A reporter asked Thompson about Kerr’s theory that time off from the thumb injury was paying dividends.

“I think so,” Thompson said, in a typically low-key response. “I mean, any time you can take a few games off ... We try to play till June every season, so I think it will help out in the long run, for sure.”