The Warriors and Celtics gave us one of the best games of the season on Saturday night as Steph Curry and Kyrie Irving had a point guard duel for the ages at Oracle Arena.
Curry and the Warriors came out on top behind his 49-point effort, edging out Boston and Irving’s 37-point showing. While it was nominally a point guard showdown, the two were not often guarding each other during the game, especially down the stretch when both teams looked to put bigger defenders on the opposing star guards.
For Golden State, that meant giving the Irving assignment to Klay Thompson and having the 6’7 two-guard use his length and quickness to present additional problems for Irving. While Irving still got to the paint and finished some incredibly difficult shots, Thompson did flex his defensive skills to force Irving into those difficult finishes. After the game, Irving was asked about Thompson’s defense and noted he should find his way onto more NBA All-Defensive teams.
When he was told Thompson has never made one, Irving simply said, “That’s some bullsh*t.” Thompson tends to be the least heralded player of the Warriors core four because he tends to be a third option on offense and isn’t routinely in the DPOY conversation like Draymond Green. The most attention Thompson gets is when he catches fire from three-point range and posts one of his random 50-point outings on some crazy efficiency, which is why he tends to be underrated as a defender.
Golden State’s defensive rating with Thompson on the floor is 101.5, almost the exact same as Draymond Green, and when he’s off the court that jumps to 107.5, the highest of off court number of any player on the Warriors. Part of that is who Steve Kerr pairs Thompson with in his rotations, as Thompson and Green have played 1,113 minutes together this season, by far the most of any pairing on the Warriors, and in those minutes the team has a 99.7 DRtg. However, there’s not another star teammate that Green plays with that he has a better defensive rating alongside, which is evidence of Thompson’s fantastic defensive skills on the perimeter.
