Klay Thompson said he has “no pain in my lower limbs” and has not felt this good in years after his overtime 3-pointer gave the Miami Heat a 117-116 win over the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday night.
“I feel amazing. I haven’t felt this good in a long time,” Thompson said. “I haven’t felt this good to start a season in years.”
Thompson scored 30 points and made 8 of 17 3-pointers. He had no 30-point games in his two seasons with Dallas.
“For myself, too, that’s the first time I scored 30 in years,” he said. “So, gives me so much confidence to keep going.”
Klay Thompson on his game-winner
Thompson hit the winner with one second left, from what he said was the left corner.
“I’ve taken so many thousands of corner threes, especially in the left corner for a right-handed shooter,” he said. He called it “probably” the easiest perimeter shot “for a righty like myself.”
“I just got my feet down,” Thompson said. “Just felt really good off my fingertips.”
He said his celebration waited a moment. With one second left, he had to “stay in front of the guy who heaved it from three quarter court.”
“After that moment, it felt great,” Thompson said. “Can’t lie to you. It felt really good.”
Thompson said patience has been his biggest step forward. “I thought I took all great looks tonight,” he said. “I might have had two or three bad ones that I took, but not forcing anything.”
Warriors return Thursday
Miami (3-5) has won three of four after an 0-4 start. Next up is Golden State, Thompson’s former team.
“Always going to be awesome seeing all the guys I grew up with, and it’s just going to be a special night,” Thompson said. “I only get to go there once this season. So, I’m going to soak it all up.”
He said the Warriors are “playing real well.” He praised Golden State rookie Yaxel Lendeborg, who scored 37 against the Clippers on Sunday, the most by a Warriors rookie since Stephen Curry in 2010.
“He’s playing great,” Thompson said. He added that Lendeborg has “a good leader” in Draymond Green, adding that the two “probably go back and forth with the MSU-Michigan rivalry.”
‘One of one’: Klay on Giannis
Giannis Antetokounmpo had 27 points, 14 rebounds and six assists. His two free throws put Miami up 107-106 with 10.8 seconds left in regulation.
“Giannis is really so unique that he’s really one of one,” Thompson said. “No one else is so fluid at getting downhill like he is.”
“A lot of superstars kind of ease into the season, but not him,” he said. “He’s 100% all the time.”
Thompson called him “one of the greatest two-way forces the NBA’s ever seen.”
Miami trailed by 20 in the second quarter. Thompson said the Heat “turned it up in the second half majorly,” holding the Clippers to 40 points after halftime in regulation.
“It was gritty. It wasn’t pretty, but it was nice to gut it out, because we’ve kind of been in the mud to start the season,” Thompson said.
He said Miami’s culture drew him in. “The culture is real. They really get the most out of you, especially this stage of my career,” Thompson said.
The Heat visit the Warriors on Thursday at 10 p.m. ET.
