Klay Thompson controls his worst impulses, shoots the ball well, and the Warriors beat the Knicks 111-101.

Klay Thompson gets the message from his team and starts moving the ball and good things happen, Steph Curry plays an all-around game, Andrew Wiggins is reliable, and much more.

For the first time since, well, opening night, the Warriors won without too much stress in a game that Klay Thompson started. I’m not trying to pick on Klay, that’s just the truth of the matter. Go look at the Warriors’ schedule. The only other game from this season that could count as a somewhat stress-free win during a Klay start would be the Warriors’ home victory against the Miami Heat, the Warriors’ fifth game of the season. Directly following that game, the Warriors went on the 0-5 road trip that derailed their season and forced Steve Kerr to make dramatic alterations to his rotation and put the kibosh, at least temporarily, on the Warriors’ two-timeline movement. 

If Wednesday night’s loss against the Suns — and more specifically — Klay Thompson’s performance, represented something of a breaking point in the Warriors’ season, tonight’s game provided a glimpse of hope. In radio appearances yesterday, Steve Kerr was pretty direct about how Klay Thompson’s shot selection had hurt the Warriors and Steph Curry seemed to be talking directly to Klay in his post-game media appearance when he said this:

“Put the focus on the team, whatever that means for everybody,” [...] “We’re all built differently. We all see the game differently. But if your energy can be focused on the team, whether it’s vocally, whether it’s with your energy or body language. Whatever the sacrifice might look like, that usually creates good vibes. You can feed off that. You can’t obsess on the stat sheet and what it looks like because that’s not how the game is played. You can’t kind of will yourself into whatever that night is you might want if you’re not focused on winning.”

The bluntness of Kerr and Curry’s message seemed to be received. In the early minutes of the first period, Klay Thompson was patient with the ball in his hands and didn’t take any unnecessary shots. Klay’s first three shots of the night came in transition and they buoyed an explosive start for the Warriors: 

Kelly O'Meara Morales @_itskellyo

Three straight transition buckets for Klay Thompson to start the game and all of them assisted. This is Klay at his best.

At the risk of sounding hyperbolic, it felt like the Warriors beat the Knicks down in a purely emotional sense with that Klay sequence. Klay’s patience and judicious shot selection set the tone for the rest of the night. The Warriors finished the game with 32 assists and while they only shot 18/50, they created open shot after open shot because they, and specifically Klay Thompson, made a concerted effort to pass up good shots for great shots. On multiple instances, Klay had chances to gun a three off a pindown screen early in the shot clock, but he thought better of it and would then hit a rolling big man like, say, Draymond Green or Kevon Looney, who would then kick the ball out and force the Knicks to rotate all over the court. Here are two such examples:

Kelly O'Meara Morales @_itskellyo

My favorite thing I noticed tonight: Klay Thompson passing up shots off pindown screens and passing the ball. Look how the Warriors' ball movement gels when Klay keeps the ball moving!!!

Klay finished the night with 20 points on 8/16 shooting and 4/10 shooting from deep. That is a Klay Thompson stat line. Here’s hoping that the results Klay had tonight serve as a guide for future performances.

Some other thoughts of note before we do the quarter-by-quarter recap: