Klay Thompson is not used to the kind of defense he's seen from the Memphis Grizzlies so far in their second-round series. The Golden State Warriors' shooting guard has often looked lost trying to find openings in the Grizzlies' stout defense, and never was that more apparent than during a bizarre, unfortunate sequence in the second quarter of Memphis' Game 2 win.
The Grizzlies are making Klay Thompson’s life miserable
Golden State hasn’t received its usual production from the All-Star shooting guard in the series against the Grizzlies.
That's when Thompson pulled off one of the most absurd possessions we've seen in recent memory. First, he curled around an Andrew Bogut screen early in the shot clock and, for whatever reason, decided to fire off a one-legged three-pointer from 26 feet out. Seconds later, after his teammate grabbed the offensive rebound, Thompson was set up at the rim for a wide open dunk. He missed that, too.
There are bad possessions, like firing up a contested “Hero Ball” jumper or making a lazy pass, and then there’s this. Thompson started off by making the indefensible decision to launch up an ill-advised shot with tons of time left on the shot clock, then followed it up by bungling one of the easiest shots he’ll see for the rest of the postseason.
This is what the Memphis defense does to certain players. It doesn’t just make things hard, it affects rhythm. The Warriors have been able to dictate things on the offensive side of the floor pretty much all year, but in Game 2, we saw one of the rare teams capable of stifling that brilliance with a combination of aggression, cohesion and toughness.
Thompson's struggles are a reflection of that effort. With the likes of Tony Allen, Mike Conley and others regularly switching between Golden State's perimeter scorers, the Grizzlies have been able to apply consistent pressure around the key in a way few other teams can muster. Thompson is used to seeing all sorts of open opportunities throughout a game given the fluid, dynamic offense Steve Kerr has installed, but he's not seeing those chances against Memphis.
And without those open opportunities, you see pressing, which results in sequences like the one above. It’s hard to describe coming around a screen and launching a wild one-legged shot from beyond the arc as anything but a mistake born of frustration. Thompson’s missed dunk also feels like an uncharacteristic blunder, the sort of thing that began snowballing when the series started.
For the Grizzlies, this is exactly what they wanted, and it’s been hard earned. The Warriors have been the league’s best offense for obvious reasons, and one of those has been Thompson’s emergence as a premier scorer. In this series, however, he’s looked far less dangerous and more like the limited shooter we saw earlier in his career.
Thompson finished Game 2 with 13 points on 6-of-15 shooting and committed five turnovers. He was better in the series opener, recording 18 points on 8-of-16 shooting with four turnovers, but even that wasn’t close to the 25 points per game he averaged in the first round against New Orleans. In the final three games of that series combined, Thompson recorded just two turnovers.
The Pelicans never had any answers for Golden State's vaunted backcourt of Thompson and Stephen Curry, but it seems like the Grizzlies might. Through two games, they've essentially neutralized one of the Warriors' big stars, and that's been enough to earn a split at one of the toughest arenas in the game.
If the Grizzlies get past the Warriors in this series, it will be a story of toughness and defense containing one of the best offenses in a generation. That’s how Memphis won Game 2, and it’s the formula going forward, too. Thompson and the Warriors may be talented enough to overcome this and continue their run of dominance, but through two games, this is looking like their greatest challenge yet.
SB Nation presents: As the playoffs intensify, so do the fights
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