The Golden State Warriors took care of business in Game 5 to extend their second-round playoff series against the Los Angeles Lakers. Stephen Curry, Andrew Wiggins and Draymond Green each scored at least 20 points, and the Warriors shot 51.1% from the field to beat the Lakers 121-106 on Wednesday to avoid elimination.
It sets up Game 6 Friday night in Los Angeles where the Warriors will once again need to win in order to stay alive in the postseason. It's a tall task, especially since only 13 teams in NBA history have overcome a 3-1 deficit in the postseason. Golden State has been on both ends of it, blowing a lead and storming back to win a series, both of which happened in the same season.
Ironically enough, the guy who could be the key to the Warriors winning Game 6 against the Lakers and taking one more step in overcoming this current 3-1 deficit, is the same guy that helped them do it the first time back in 2016: Klay Thompson.
The reasoning behind it isn't clear, but the reality is Thompson has a penchant for going absolutely bonkers in Game 6s in the playoffs. It started in the 2016 postseason, when Thompson and the Warriors were trying to claw back from a 3-1 deficit against the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Finals. In Game 6 with Golden State down 3-2 in the series, Thompson dropped 41 points in 40 minutes, going 11 of 18 from deep. The Warriors eventually went on to win the series. He had a similar nuclear performance in 2018 against the Houston Rockets in the Western Conference Finals. Thompson racked up 35 points on 13-of-23 shooting from the field to help the Warriors tie the series up at three games apiece before eventually advancing to the NBA Finals and winning another title.
After missing two seasons due to major injuries, Thompson returned to do it again last season in the second round of the playoffs against the Memphis Grizzlies. His 30 points on 50% from the field in Game 6 sent the Grizzlies packing, and the Warriors went on to win, you guessed it, another championship.
But unlike most of those previous instances, the Warriors are desperate for a vintage Game 6 Klay performance. It's no longer just a fun moniker to attach to his name, Golden State needs Thompson to show up for Game 6 better than he has in the previous three meetings of this series. In the last three games, Thompson has totaled 15, 9 and 10 points, while shooting a combined 29.7% from the field and 33.3% from deep. Aside from Golden State's Game 2 win in which Thompson totaled 30 points on 61% from the field, he's shot the ball incredibly poorly, which has been a big reason why Golden State finds itself in this predicament right now.
Some of that is credit to L.A.'s defense. The Lakers have more capable defenders than the Kings did in the first round, and are sticking pretty well to Thompson as he comes around all those off-ball screens to launch shots. As a result, 26.3% of Thompson's 3-pointers in this series have come with a defender within 2-4 feet of him. On those shots, he's shooting just 33.3% from deep. He shot 45.2% from deep in the first round against Sacramento with a defender within 2-4 feet of him, so you could say his poor performance is a little bit of L.A.'s defense and a little bit of just a bad streak of shooting.
If it's a bad shooting streak, the Warriors have to hope that comes to an end Friday night, because relying on Green to replicate his Game 5 performance is a bit of a reach. The good news is that when Thompson went off in a Game 6 against the Grizzlies last season it came after he shot 38.1% from the field and 29.3% from deep in the first five games of that series. If Thompson follows that same trend, then he could have a big performance in Game 6, adding another chapter to the Game 6 Klay legend. At least, that's what Golden State is hoping will happen.
