Thompson broke loose and clamped down to get one win away
And Stephen Curry will get the attention, because he should get the attention, because he’s averaging damn near a triple-double in the 2017 NBA Finals while shooting 48.4 percent from 3-point land on 10 attempts a game.
“What Klay Thompson has done defensively for the first three games of this series, it goes unnoticed,” said Warriors sixth man Andre Iguodala.
After struggling offensively for most of this postseason, Thompson’s shot started falling in Game 2, when he went 8 for 12 from the field and 4 for 7 from 3 en route to 22 points.
That was just a prelude to a bigger offensive breakthrough for the 27-year-old, who came out guns blazing in Game 3 16 points in the first quarter, 5 for 7 from the floor, 4 for 5 from deep on his way to a postseason-high 30 points.
Just as he did in last year’s Finals, Irving broke free in Game 3, exploding for 38 points on 16-for-29 shooting to give LeBron James the support he needed to keep the Cleveland Cavaliers in the fight against the Warriors far longer than they’d managed in Games 1 or 2.
It was a brilliant display of shot-making authored by one of the NBA’s premier offensive artists, full of dazzling moves to create just enough space for Irving to get the shot away, often just over or around Thompson’s outstretched arm.