NBA Finals Player Preview: Klay Thompson

As Stephen Curry has struggled through injury, Klay Thompson has stepped forward as the Golden State Warriors’ best player.

One of the many, many themes of this Finals rematch is sidekicks. If it were a movie, it would be called “Warriors vs Cavaliers 2: Dudes are Healthy.”

(Yadda yadda over Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving being good to go) … But what gets lost in the narrative is that only one Splash Brother showed up in the NBA Finals last season.

Klay Thompson wasn’t good in last year’s Finals, scoring a measly 14, 9, 12 and 5 points in the last four games. After shooting 42.7 percent on three-pointers in the first three rounds, he made just 30 percent of his threes against the Cavs. In other words: fart noise.

Fortunate for them, the Warriors were bailed out by Andre Iguodala’s Finals MVP performance. But this time the Warriors can’t afford another Thompson dud. And I wouldn’t expect it, given how he’s played.

With Stephen Curry dealing with an injury through seven games in the first two rounds (and against the Thunder for you Curry apologists), Thompson’s been Golden State’s most consistent player in the playoffs. He’s scored at least 30 points in five games — including a 41-point performance to force a Game 7 against the Thunder — and has made 77 three-pointers (that’s more than Jeremy Lin’s hair, Manu Ginobili’s corpse or the ghost of Rudy Gay made all season).

When he’s not stepping into the MVP’s shoes, Thompson’s defending the likes of James Harden, Damian Lillard and Russell Westbrook in crunch time. Bottom line: Thompson’s been the best two-way player of the playoffs. To call him Curry’s sidekick throughout this run would be dangerously inaccurate. He has been every bit as great as the unanimous MVP.

Thompson’s defense will be key in limiting Cleveland’s improved perimeter shooting. He’ll likely start on J.R. Smith, Cleveland’s playoff barometer. When Smith makes 50 percent or more of his shots, the Cavaliers are 8-0 and whooping teams by nearly 19 points. When he shoots less than 50 percent, the Cavs are 4-2 and scuttling by opponents by about just four.

It’ll be up to Thompson to keep Smith under wraps and knock the Cavs off the rails early, before likely switching onto Irving in crunch time. Oh, and by the way, defending Irving also means defending LeBron when the Cavs run its Irving-James pick-and-roll and the defense has to switch. Thompson, for as great as he’s been on offense, will have his work cut out for him on defense. The stage is set for Thompson, and he hasn’t shied away from it yet this season.

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