This One's For You......KLAY

     My readers, friends, and family would know that I'm not the BIGGEST fan of the Golden State Warriors shooting guard, Klay Thompson. Before last nights game, he never seemed to impress me with his play. I thought all along that all he had was a 3-point shot. I was even hoping that the trade got done to send him to New Orleans for Eric Gordon before the trade deadline. I'm not saying after last night's performance I'm going to become his #1 fan, but i think I owe him some props after his historic night. I support Mark Jackson when he said, "Klay had one of the best first halves in the history of the NBA." It's not everyday we see someone score 29 points and shoot 7/8 from the 3-point line, especially on the road in hostile playoff territory in a place where we haven't won in 16 years. But Klay did just that. On top of his stellar shooting, he's starting to show DubNation how good of a defender he really is. Throughout this whole season, Coach Jackson has gave him the duty to guard the opponent's best player. It stretched from guarding guys like Tony Parker and Kobe Bryant, to Kevin Durant and Carmelo Anthony. He's not the best defender in the world like Bruce Bowen once was (although that's all Bowen really did), but he does enough to slow the other team's superstar down or get them out of their rhythm at least. What exactly is "good enough" defending? Gary St. Jean explained it perfectly on the post game show, he said Klay does what the best defenders do, really well. Those things are closing out on the shooter, knowing how to fight through screens, and moving your feet quickly to stay in front of the ball handler. This is exactly what he's been doing this whole playoff series so far against Tony Parker. He's been making him work for his buckets whenever he is faced up against him. In Klay's post game interview, he said that he listened to his biggest critic, his dad. His father told him after the game 1 loss that he's got to stay out of foul trouble. In game 2 he only had 3 fouls which was far different than game 1. To wrap it all up, I'm not praising Klay Thompson just yet because it's all about what you do in the next game. Are you gonna show people it was just a fluke and go back to the inconsistent Klay? Or are you going to build off of your strong performance and show us you could shoot like that on a nightly basis? I'm not saying put up another 34 or shoot 8/9 from three again. Just show us you could be a consistent player Steph could rely on for help so people could stop doubting you. Now the ball is in your hands, game 3, Friday, it's your turn to show Dubnation what your made of, again.