Programming note: Watch the NBA Finals pregame edition of Warriors Outsiders today at 4 p.m., streaming live on the MyTeams app.
Will Klay Thompson suit up for Game 3 of the NBA Finals against the Toronto Raptors? That is the biggest question entering Wednesday night's showdown at Oracle Arena.
The five-time All-Star has never missed a playoff game in his career. The Warriors have played 120 postseason games since 2013, and Klay has started all 120 while averaging 37.1 minutes. The Splash Bro sustained a high ankle sprain during Game 1 of last year's NBA Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers and didn't miss any time.
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Golden State coach Steve Kerr repeatedly has called Klay a machine, and that toughess didn't begin when Thompson got to the league in 2011. He has been as tough as they come since he was a kid.
Ethan Strauss of The Athletic has the details:
“The most prominent memory I have of his toughness was in Little League when he was our number one pitcher,” Klay’s father Mychal Thompson said in a phone interview Tuesday. “He broke his foot on the playground at school, jumping off of a rock. Cracked the bone. He didn’t tell anybody. Didn’t tell me or his mom and continued to play and pitch on his broken foot til it started turning colors and swelling up.
Of course, I said it’ll be all right, he just sprained his ankle. You know mothers, she didn’t take that for a diagnosis. Sure enough, he had a cracked foot. He played through that pain and he didn’t tell anybody. That was an early sign of his toughness. He went out in pain and didn’t tell anybody because he wanted to play. He wouldn’t complain about it, and put up with the pain because he wanted to play with his friends in Little League.”
Golden State Warriors
Does your foot hurt right now just thinking about this? Same.
If it was up to Klay, he wouldn't be questionable for Game 3. He would take the floor and play all 48 minutes. But the Warriors might need to protect him from himself.
[REWIND: Klay showed his father that 'Kobe toughness']
"He thinks he'll be ready to go," Kerr said Tuesday. "But as I said the other night, Klay's always gonna say he's ready to go.
"What we'll have to determine is that a risk? If he plays, are we risking anything? If the training staff feels good about his ability to go out there and play without making things worse, then he'll play."