Warriors still have Klay-sized hole to fill halfway through season

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Warriors still have Klay-sized hole to fill halfway through season originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

His shoes always were going to be impossible to fill. But the shape of how Klay Thompson’s piece fit the Warriors’ puzzle began to be formed, for just a few games and not for any longer than that.

Thompson no longer is a Warrior. The memories always will be there, but the two sides moved on last summer, and perhaps even before that. Thompson wears a different logo on his jersey than the one he represented for over a decade. His number isn’t the same, and neither is the position he plays after forming the greatest backcourt in NBA history alongside Steph Curry.

Nearly halfway through the first season of Klay in Dallas Mavericks threads and a No. 31 jersey, the Warriors are living the lesson of how hard it is to replace the old version of half the Splash Brothers, while the one who still resides in Golden State is on the losing end to the Toronto Raptors, losers in 16 of their previous 17 games, despite scoring 26 points with seven rebounds and seven assists just two months shy of his 37th birthday.

Down Draymond Green (back/illness) and Jonathan Kuminga (ankle), Warriors coach Steve Kerr opted to go with a guard-heavy starting lineup Monday night at Scotiabank Arena. Andrew Wiggins slid down to power forward to form a frontcourt with center Trayce Jackson-Davis. Dennis Schröder remained in the starting backcourt alongside Curry, and in came Buddy Hield to provide offense.

Schröder and Hield combined to score 20 points on 8-of-25 shooting (32 percent) and 4 of 16 on threes (25 percent). Each had as many turnovers (two) as 3-pointers made.

“We have a lot of off-ball stuff that we run, and when he’s being guarded like that we like to have him set screens,” Kerr said after the loss when asked about taking press off Curry with the way he’s being guarded. “We should be able to free other people up. That should loosen the defense up. That’s where he can start moving after the screen, after the play.”

Teams aren’t afraid of the Warriors, who at 19-20 fell under .500 for the first time this…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/warriors-still-klay-sized-hole-055955909.html

Author : NBC Sports BayArea

Publish date : 2025-01-14 05:59:00

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