Klay hey! Thompson’s dunk sets tone in win
Kerr also reaches milestone — fastest to coach 250 victories
The crowd roared. The bench cheered. And Warriors guard Klay Thompson stayed as stoic as ever. After often lifting up his fans and teammates with endless 3-pointers, Thompson threw down a one-hammer dunk in transition that caused everyone to go crazy.
“It’s pretty cool. You don’t see them get up quite a lot,” Thompson said. “So to see them get hyped was pretty funny.’’
That play did not just serve as a highlight-reel moment. It also captured the overall energy that helped the Warriors secure a 122105 victory over the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday at Oracle Arena.
This past week, the Warriors struggled with complacency after losing three of their past five games. But that was not an issue on Saturday in a game when Thompson threw down a dunk over Spurs center Davis Bertans that gave the Warriors a 68-62 lead with 8:19 left in the third quarter.
“They love when Klay dunks,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said, smiling. “He took off from pretty far out. I wasn’t sure if he was go-
ing to get there.”
It seemed like a foregone conclusion that the Warriors (43-13) would accomplish another milestone.
Kerr became the fourth Warriors coach to collect 250 career wins, securing a 250-52 record through 3 ½ seasons and reaching 250 wins in just 302 games — quickest to that mark in NBA history, and faster than former Bulls and Lakers coach Phil Jackson (346 games) and former Lakers, Knicks and Heat coach Pat Riley (348).
Kerr also became the quickest coach in the history of the four major pro sports to reach 250 wins.
Kerr jokingly lamented about Lakers coach Luke Walton finishing with a 39-4 record as interim coach in 2015-16 season (“Can we eliminate the losses that Luke accrued when I was out?”)
Kerr then joked he will text Jackson soon (“He couldn’t do it and he had Michael Jordan, for God sakes. I don’t know what Phil’s problem was.”)
“It just means I inherited a hell of a game, an amazing talented group of players,” Kerr said.
That amazing group of players may have secured two NBA championships in the past three years. Yet that same group of players struggled showing much effort amid three losses in the past five games entering Saturday’s game.
That changed against the Spurs (35-22).
The Warriors depended on their star power with Thompson (25 points), Stephen Curry (17) Draymond Green (17), Zaza Pachulia (12) and Kevin Durant (10) all contributing. The Warriors bench also helped with David West (13) and JaVale McGee (seven) leading the way. And the Warriors relied on yet another third-quarter run, which entailed holding the Spurs to an inefficient rate from the field (31 percent) and from 3-point range (22.2 percent).
“Sometimes we take for granted the type of talent we have and think we can just go out there and get it done,” West said. “But we know we have to bring that consistent effort and play with a certain level of force to make teams do what we want to do.”
Granted, the Warriors had much more depth than a Spurs team decimated by injuries to Tony Parker (back) and Kawhi Leonard (right quadriceps tendinopathy).
But as Kerr said, “It’s always a fair fight with the Spurs; it seems like no matter who they have, they’re always competitive.”
The Spurs led by as many as 12 points. After disappearing in last year’s Western Conference Finals, Spurs forward LaMarcus Aldridge posted eight of his 20 points in the first quarter. After defying expectations and Father Time in recent seasons, Spurs guard Manu Ginobili had six of his 13 points in the first quarter.
In what Kerr said “was the story of the game,” the Warriors reserves helped turned thing around.
The Warriors decreased the Spurs’ first-quarter lead to 33-24 after closing out the period with a 12-2 run. In the second quarter, the Warriors forced San Antonio to miss all five of its 3-point attempts. And holding a 58-55 halftime lead, the Warriors outscored the Spurs, 33-20, in the third quarter. That included Thompson’s memorable dunk that has represented a playful competition with Pachulia.
“It’s been a lot of fun. We motivate each other to get to the rim and finish strong,” Thompson said. “I think he’s up one on me. But (there’s) a lot of basketball left. But I see myself beating him by at least four or five dunks. I’m not too worried.”
Meanwhile, Curry was not too worried about tweaking his ankle that temporarily caused him to go to the sideline for treatment. Curry insisted he “felt fine” after playing through any pain.
Curry spoke more about Thompson’s dunk (“It’s nice to see him have that aggressiveness”) and Kerr’s milestone (“Obviously he made the right decision”).
“When he first got here, he took his time implementing his system to make that next step to a championship-winning team as opposed to being a playoff team as we were before,” Curry said. “It’s been an amazing 3/1 2 years, and hopefully more to come.”