Stephen Curry gets most of the headlines, and he earns them. Just remove Andre Iguodala from the rotation and the Warriors become pedestrian (as we have seen). Andrew Bogut anchors it all down.
However we shouldn’t leave Klay Thompson off the list.
When you start to look at the Sports VU camera data from the NBA — the cameras in every arena that track every movement a player makes, then the six cameras provide that data to a computer, which details everything that happens on the court — the numbers paint an interesting picture of Thompson.
• Thompson gets 9 catch-and-shoot points per game, tied with Ryan Anderson for the most in the NBA. He gets 7.3 catch-and-shoot opportunities a game, 5.5 of those are from three, and Thompson has an impressive eFG% of 61.8 percent on those chances. That percentage puts him ahead of some very good catch-and-shoot guys such as Joe Johnson, Kevin Martin, Bradley Beal and a host of others (the highest eFG% on catch-and-shoots of guys getting more than four a game is, not surprisingly, Kyle Korver at 73.6%).
• Thompson is averaging 0.46 points per time he touches the ball, the fourth best in the NBA. For the record, he touches the ball about 41.7 times per game.
• Thompson has covered more ground running than any NBA player, 100.8 miles this season. Thompson covers an average of 2.7 miles per game, again most in the NBA.
• By the way, he moves at an average of 4.2 miles per hour while running around, which is pretty average (Patty Mills of the Spurs moves the fastest at 4.8).
Those number pretty much confirm what we already knew about Thompson — that he moves off the ball, works hard to get open, and when you feed him the rock he’s likely to shoot it and likely to make it.
Combine that with Stephen Curry and you have one interesting — and dangerous — backcourt. They may be jump shooters but that’s fine if they go in, and for this team they go in a lot.
https://twitter.com/KingJames/statuses/421960662034964482
Kings 124, Cavaliers 80: Here’s the real story out of this game — Isaiah Thomas completely outplayed Kyrie Irving. Thomas finished with 26 points while Irving had 7 on 3-of-14 shooting (with Thomas and Ben McLemore primarily on him. Well, that’s the story plus Sacramento won this going away. Cleveland did have an early 7-0 lead, and C.J. Miles hit an amazing three at the end of the first quarter, but that’s about when things fall apart. With Jimmer Fredette off the bench scoring 8 to spark it, the Kings went on a 19-4 run early in the second and that’s pretty much it, Sacramento ran away with it. Rudy Gay had 20 points on 12 shots, and DeMarcus Cousins was too much for anyone on the Cavs in the paint.
Grizzlies 108, Hawks 101: Atlanta had gone on a 16-0 run from the end of the third into the early fourth and had taken a three point lead, then Mike Conley happened. He either scored assisted on 23 of the next Grizzlies 25 points to get Memphis the win. Atlanta had played pretty good defense the past week or so, but the Memphis Grizzlies knocked down shots — 51.8 percent overall and 6-of-15 from three — and make the Hawks pay. Mike Miller came in and hit 6-of-8 on his way to 15 points, and Conley was crossing up Shelvin Mack on his way to 21.
Spurs 104, Timberwolves 86: And still the Timberwolves cannot get over .500. The Spurs execution is just relentless and while this game was even for the first half Tim Duncan put up 11 of his 15 in the third quarter as the Spurs pulled away for the win. Tony Parker added 14 points and 10 dimes. Nikola Pekovic led the Timberwolves on the night (he was covered by Duncan much of the night, the Spurs do miss Tiago Splitter).
