by Marcel Mutoni / @ marcel_mutoni
With all eyes on Steph Curry following his 44-point Game 1 explosion, everyone seemed to have forgetten about Klay Thompson.
Thompson devastated the San Antonio Spurs with 29 first half points, en route to a total of 34 and 14 rebounds, helping to secure a 100-91 Game 2 win for the Golden State Warriors as they overcame a heartbreaking loss in the series opener.
Klay more than made up for the disappointment of fouling out of Game 1 — lighting up the Spurs, and putting the clamps on Tony Parker — and sent the series back to The Bay deadlocked at one game apiece.
Per Yahoo! Sports and the Mercury News:
Thirty straight losses here had been punctuated with the ultimate kick-in-the-groin on Monday, a biblical Game 1 collapse that left Thompson seething and blaming himself for fouling out in the final minutes. “He was visibly shaken,” Warriors coach Mark Jackson said. “He thought he let his team down.”
“I think for seven-and-a-half quarters, we’ve played better basketball than (the Spurs) have,” Stephen Curry said as he accepted congratulations walking to the team bus. “So you want more to show for it. But I think the fact that we came back from that collapse and got this win, it makes up for that feeling.” […] “Yesterday was a bitch of a day for us,” center Andrew Bogut said of the reflection time between Games 1 and 2. “We didn’t enjoy it. It was a dog day for us. But we forgot about it today, came to the game with a focus.”
San Antonio faces a daunting task now, needing to bounce back after nearly pulling off two miracle comeback victories.
The Warriors have momentum on their side heading back to their racous home arena for the next two games. They have the two best shooters in the series, and the Spurs are very much on their heels:
“This is everything,” Thompson said. “It changes the whole dynamic of the series.”
