Klay Thompson showed out against the Houston Rockets on Monday night at Toyota Center and his mindset was the reason why.
Speaking with Kerith Burke, Chris Mullin and Monte Poole on "Warriors Postgame Live," the Golden State star shared that he reminisced about the past while playing the current iteration of the Rockets.
"I actually told myself, I was pretending I'm playing [the] 2018 Rockets where it was a battle every time we used to play those guys," Thompson revealed after the Warriors' 121-108 win. "They're still young, they're talented and you can't take anybody lightly, especially at this point in the season."
Overall, Thompson scored 29 points, grabbed seven rebounds and dished out one assist in 37 minutes of action. He went 11 of 21 from the field and drained five of his 13 3-point attempts.
Steph Curry led all scorers with 30 points to go along with his seven rebounds and five assists.
Dub Nation certainly remembers the matchups Golden State used to have with Houston, as previous Rockets teams featured stars like James Harden, Chris Paul, Clint Capela and others.
Golden State Warriors
Before, the two squads used to battle for Western Conference supremacy in the playoffs, including the emergence of "Game 6 Klay" and the Rockets missing 27 straight 3-pointers in Game 7 during the 2018 Western Conference finals.
Now, Golden State continues to chase championships while Houston is kickstarting their rebuild, having traded away Harden, Paul, Capela and any remnants of those old Rockets teams.
Thompson added that it was "strange" to see how young the Rockets' current roster is -- noting how Jabari Smith Jr. is only 19 years old -- and is appreciative to still be with Golden State.
"The Rockets I used to play in the 2010s were seasoned vets, all littered throughout that roster," the 33-year-old said to reporters postgame. "Obviously, James is one of the best players in that franchise's history and they brought on CP too.
"They had such a great team that almost knocked us off and I had a lot of respect for those Rockets teams and now I just feel old playing these young bucks."
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After two devastating lower leg injuries, Thompson arguably is playing some of his best basketball this season, to the point where even Curry calls it "beautiful to watch."
If Thompson wants to have big games against Houston, all he has to do is reminisce about the Rockets teams of old.