Thompson shakes off early foul trouble to help Warriors finish off Houston.
HOUSTON >> Klay Thompson picked up two fouls in the first minute Monday night, followed by a third a few minutes later.
It put Thompson in a spot, but the Warriors were in a tougher spot, trailing by as much as 15 points in the first half — with their season dangling in the balance.
So Warriors’ coach Steve Kerr had no choice but to play his superstar shooter, who went on to finish with 19 points on 8-for-13 shooting, including three 3-pointers in the Warriors’ 101-92 win.
“After the second foul, I decided to keep him in because I generally do that,” Kerr said. “I leave a guy out there for a little bit. I don’t want to take a guy out right away. But then he picked up his third right away, which was a disaster.”
The Warriors survived the first quarter, down 2419, and Thompson helped bring them out of the big hole in the second quarter. He scored 10 points in the quarter, twice as many as any other Warriors player, and the Warriors cut the deficit from 15 to nine at halftime.
“I was very frustrated in the first four minutes,” Thompson said. “Picking up three fouls is inexcusable, especially for a player who has been in the league for seven years. It’s something I can’t do next series. Luckily, I have great teammates who helped me out and kept me poised throughout the game. But I cannot do that next series. That’s a big nono. I learned my lesson.”
Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry combined for 61 points — but Thompson certainly did his part. His 19 points came in 30 minutes; he played only four minutes in the first quarter.
• Andre Iguodala was in street clothes for Game 7, the fourth straight game he missed with a bruised left knee.
The question now is will he miss a fifth, or has he progressed enough to play Thursday night in Game 1 of the NBA Finals against Cleveland?
“How do you define progress?” Iguodala asked rhetorically in the locker room following the Warriors’ win over Houston in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals on Monday.
Iguodala then answered his own question.
“I can walk without pain,” he said. Kerr said Iguodala has not run, however, without feeling pain.
“I tried,” Iguodala said. “But I can walk. I keep trying to get better.”
Iguodala, 34, bruised his left knee in Game 3 in a collision with James Harden.
• Chris Paul also missed Game 7. (The Rockets star was not in street clothes, however, choosing instead to wear the official team warm-ups, as he’d done in Game 6.)
The Rockets waited until two hours before game time to make the decision on Paul, who sustained a right hamstring in the final minute of Game 5.
“Everyone came to a set conclusion that there’s no way,” Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni said. “He couldn’t explode and push off of it. Not ready. I knew it was a long shot when it happened.”
• On the eve of his own epic Game 7, Curry found time to watch LeBron James.
“LeBron is amazing,’’ Curry said Monday, a few hours before Game 7.
“It’s unbelievable to
think about the consistency and longevity and greatness that he’s shown.”
James scored 35 points
against the Boston Celtics in Game 7 on Sunday night, lifting the Cleveland Cavaliers into the NBA Finals. For James, the four-time league MVP, this makes eight consecutive trips to the Finals: four with Miami and now four with Cleveland.
“I turned on the TV last night and there were points in the game when you didn’t know how it was going to play out,’’ Curry marveled. “(But) they found a way to get it done. It was an amazing performance.”
• Two days after denying reports that they would have a pre-draft workout for LiAngelo Ball, the Warriors confirmed they will work out the 19-year-old brother of Lonzo Ball (and son of LaVar Ball) on June 10.
The Warriors offered no explanation for the reversal, but a team source said their initial response was based on not having a date set for Ball.
In any case, the Warriors’ level of interest in Ball (6-5, 215) is not especially strong. He played only one game at UCLA, leaving the team after being suspended for a shoplifting incident in China. He then spent 12 games playing professionally in Lithuania.
The Warriors have the 28th pick in the draft on June 21.