Thompson’s tolerance for pain on display in Game 1 after collision with Smith

OAKLAND >> The technical difficulties during a conference call annoyed Klay Thompson far more than any pain he feels in his left ankle.

Although he described it as “sore” on Friday, Thompson considered it a “great sign” he felt less pain than both during and after the Warriors’ Game 1 overtime win over the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals on Thursday. Therefore, Thompson reiterated he will play in Game 2 on Sunday at Oracle Arena despite nursing what the team called a “lateral left leg contusion.”

“At this point in the year, everybody is going to be banged up and will play through it,” Thompson said Friday on a conference call. “You can be sore going into the summer time. That’s how I look at it.”

It looked gloomier when Cavaliers guard J.R. Smith tried to intercept a pass, lost his balance and crashed into Thompson. He then toppled to the floor and winced in pain. He limped to the bench and then to the locker room to receive treatment with 6:17 left in the first quarter.

Thompson shook off his injury as fast as it takes him to stop a shooting slump. Thompson returned at the beginning of

the second quarter and played the rest of the game. He finished with 24 points while shooting 8 of 16 from the field and 5 of 10 from 3-point range in 45 minutes.

“Klay is just a physical specimen,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said Friday on a conference call. “It’s just incredible resilience and stamina to play both ends night after night with 40plus minutes in the playoffs. He’s a machine.”

That machine only missed nine games this season, including eight to treat a fractured right thumb and one for rest purposes. Through his seventh NBA season, the 28-yearold Thompson has played 537 out of a possible 558 regular-season games. He has appeared in all of the

Warriors’ 99 possible playoff contests. And he has no intentions on making an exception.

“The stakes on the line right now are huge. So that helps,” Thompson said. “If this were Game 32 of the regular season, I would not have played (on Thursday). It’s a long, long grind to get to where we want to be. But since we only need four wins to hoist that trophy, the pain tolerance can go up.”

No wonder Kerr brought up Hall-of-Famers Michael Jordan (Chicago Bulls) and Tim Duncan (San Antonio Spurs) when asked if Thompson’s pain threshold compared to any of his former teammates.

“Those guys, you just knew were going to be present and were going to be there in the lineup card every night,” Kerr said. “That’s a hugely valuable asset for a team to have. Klay represents that for us.”

Thompson represented that for nearly every team he played for growing up.

He first developed toughness by playing sports with his brothers, Mychel and Trayce. Mychal Thompson, Klay’s father and former player of the Showtime Lakers, said that it became inevitable those games resulted in broken furniture, a twisted ankle or an argument over someone cheating.

That mindset carried over into youth sports. Although Mychal described his son as a “skinny little quarterback” when he played youth football in Lake Oswego, Ore, Klay remained durable. After twisting one of his knees, Klay refused to tell anyone for a few days and then healed quickly enough to keep playing.

“Being able to have brothers beat up on in the driveway and playing football my whole life helped,”

Klay said “You never know what it’s like to be hurt until you play the sport of football. You arguably can get hurt every play. I developed that as a child. I just want to continue.”

Therefore, imagine how Klay felt when he was forced to miss a Little League tournament after injuring one of his feet. Klay kept pleading to play despite Mychal saying his son’s foot “looked black and blue.”

“He was devastated and such a competitor,” Mychal said. “He loved playing on the team. He was one of the best players. They definitely missed him.”

The Warriors have not missed Klay as much. They saw a glimpse this season on how he plays through pain, though.

Thompson fractured his right thumb on March 11 in Minnesota after trying to swipe the ball from Timberwolves guard Jeff Teague. Then, Thompson

recalled that he could not feel his thumb. Thompson still played, though, and went 8 of 22 from the field. Afterward, the Warriors determined Thompson had a fracture instead of a sprain.

In Game 1 against Cleveland, Warriors fans both gasped when Thompson fell and booed Smith for his role in the injury. Though Thompson looked in pain and limped the locker room, the Warriors only needed to retape him. They expressed relief the injury does not affect Thompson’s left knee.

When it happened, though, did Thompson feel as concerned as Warriors fans?

“No. I felt it in my ankle. I thought I just rolled it,” Thompson said. “But there’s nothing in my knees or legs. It was a high ankle (injury). It just trickled down lower as the night went on. I knew it would be sore. I’ve had that injury plenty of times.

Luckily we have a couple of days between games. So I’ll be able to get it right.”

Klay learned to have that mindset partly because Mychal often shared stories about how former Lakers A.C. Green and Kobe Bryant played through injuries. As Mychal noted, “guys would play 82 games and not even think about the schedule being too long or too tiring.”

After playing in all but six minutes and 17 seconds of Game 1, Klay did not sound tired. Instead, he sounded anxious to play again.

“I’ve been very blessed not to have any catastrophic injuries in my whole basketball career,” Thompson said. “I’ve had some knick knacks as far as sprained ankles and thumbs, but nothing that was too detrimental in my future. But I’ve had a high pain tolerance since I’ve been a kid.”