Klay admits to falling asleep on late Jazz trey in Warriors’ loss originally appeared on NBC Sports Bayarea
Klay Thompson and the Warriors were caught snoozing in crunch time in their 124-123 loss to the Utah Jazz on Wednesday night at Vivint Arena.
Golden State claimed a four-point lead on Jordan Poole’s free throw with 13.3 seconds left, which should have secured the win. The Warriors needed just one more stop and no turnovers.
They failed at both.
On the ensuing Jazz possession, Moses Moody trailed Utah guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker to the bucket. Warriors forward Klay Thompson ditched his post on the perimeter to watch Alexander-Walker, leaving 3-point sniper Malik Beasley wide open.
“I just fell asleep. I watched the ball handler get to the rim rather than staying on the 3-point shooter,” Thompson said after the game. “That was a dreadful mistake by myself.”
Beasley, who ranks fifth in the NBA in 3-point makes with 85 in 27 games, swished the trey.
Poole then turned the ball over after catching an inbounds pass, which the Jazz scooped up for a go-ahead dunk. Ball game.
“In my experience, there’s one game like this every year where you leave the building saying, ‘What just happened?’” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said after the win. “It happened to us last year, a couple of them last year, actually … where you make mistakes down the stretch and you leave the arena just shaking your head.”
The Warriors were operating without three stars in Steph Curry, Draymond Green and Andrew Wiggins. Aside from the final 13.3 seconds, there were many positives to build on.
Poole went off for a season-high 36 points and scored 10 in the fourth quarter alone. Jonathan Kuminga had his best game of the season, coming off the bench for 24 points on 10-of-13 shooting, five rebounds and four assists. Kuminga, who was an afterthought in the Warriors’ rotation in the early goings this season, nearly played the entire fourth quarter.
Like Kuminga, Thompson is playing better than his crawling start to the season. He’s logged at least 20 points in his last three efforts and five of his last six. But leaving Beasley open will haunt the superstar until his next chance to suit up on Saturday.
“You learn from it. You watch the tape, see what you need to do better,” Kerr said. “Can’t leave a 3-point shooter up four with six seconds left when the game plan was to not give up 3s. We relaxed. We gave up a 3. We’ve got to take care of the ball.
“We didn’t take care of those things down the stretch.”
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The Warriors return home Saturday for an NBA Finals rematch against the Boston Celtics before heading out for a difficult six-game road trip in the Eastern Conference. All but one of the Warriors’ next seven opponents are .500 or better – a mark Golden State barely clears at 13-13 through 26 games.
“We have to close the door,” Kerr said. “This is a hard league. Everybody is good. Everybody has great players. And we didn’t close the door.”