The talk of the team this Warriors playoffs has been Jordan Poole, and rightfully so. Poole is stepping up in a huge way, especially with Steph Curry under minutes restriction. He’s looked every bit of a reliable number 1 option, and should get a ton of credit for that. There is, however, one other guy who should be getting some credit for his playoff success this season. A guy who last played in the postseason during the 2019 Finals.

Klay Thompson has been flying very under the radar given how well he’s played. It makes sense when you have how Poole’s been playing, how much Steph’s been scoring despite his minutes restriction, and Draymond Green’s defense on Nikola Jokic. But after a tough Game 4 loss earlier today, Klay is averaging 24.5 points per game while shooting 52% from the field and a scorching 50% from the arc on 10 attempts per game. Naturally, he also just passed Ray Allen for 3rd all-time on the playoff’s made 3s list.

We’ve all known Klay is a big-game player. They don’t call him “Game 6 Klay” for nothing. With the Warriors having another off-the-dribble primary creator, however, he’s been able to get even cleaner looks. Poole drawing the defense’s attention by collapsing it on the drive gets Thompson a lot of good looks, which he creates for himself with his signature excellent off-ball movement.

Tonight was no different, with Thompson putting up 32 points on a hyper-efficient 12-for-20 shooting, including 7-for-11 from deep. He had the second highest plus-minus on the team behind Draymond Green, but was sat for long stretches due to early foul trouble. He finished with 5 fouls, also second-most on the team behind Green, who fouled out. While some were avoidable, the refereeing in this game was nothing short of abysmal, and that showed up big-time in the box score and of course on the floor.

Klay also mentioned in his postgame media availability that the Warriors should treat Game 5 as a “must-win”, mostly to get some rest for the next series, but also to avoid having to travel back to Denver:

Regardless of the team’s overall play tonight, it’s been a joy to have Klay Thompson back on the floor for the playoffs. He is tied for the highest win percentage in NBA playoff history, tied with Green and just a percent point above Steph Curry, per StatMuse.

Thompson will be key for the Warriors moving forward as he usually is, bringing a flame-throwing presence on offense that can punish teams for selling out too hard on Poole or Curry, and remaining a mobile and consistent perimeter defender on the other end. Assuming the higher seeds win their matchups, the Dubs could be looking at more perimeter-heavy teams in the playoffs (Ja Morant and Desmond Bane on the Grizzlies, and Chri Paul and Devin Booker on the Suns) compared to Denver.

Game 5 will be played at Chase Center on Wednesday to give some travel time for both teams to get back to the Bay Area. Thompson will likely once again be heavily-involved as one of the primary offensive hardpoints on this roster. His return from injury has been impressive so far, and there’s no reason that would not continue against a team that doesn’t have many options to guard him.

(Photo credit: Gerald Herbert / AP Photo)