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Klay Thompson says he didn’t feel his ankle once the crowd got going, then scores 26 in 20 minutes off Giannis’ between-the-legs pass
Back from a sore ankle, Klay Thompson made six threes and scored 26 points in 20 minutes as the Heat beat the Pistons 137-117 for a fourth straight win. One of them came off Giannis Antetokounmpo’s between-the-legs “hike.” “He can be the best player in the world,” Thompson said.
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Klay Thompson said the sore ankle that kept him out on Friday was not a factor by the time the Miami Heat took the floor against the Detroit Pistons on Saturday night. He then scored 26 points in 20 minutes, made six threes, and finished with a +15 in a 137-117 win at Kaseya Center.
Thompson shot 10-of-17 from the field and 6-of-11 from three, with four assists and a block, as Miami won its fourth straight game and moved above .500 for the first time this season at 7-6. He had been listed out for Friday’s win over Cleveland with ankle soreness from a chase-down block late in Tuesday’s win in Utah.
Asked whether he was at 100% coming into the game, Thompson said he was, and that once he heard the home crowd he did not even feel the soreness.
Two threes in the first three minutes
Thompson scored eight of Miami’s first 18 points. His first basket was the play everyone was talking about afterward. Giannis Antetokounmpo dove on the floor to keep a loose ball from being knocked away and flicked it back between his own legs, like a long snapper, to Thompson in the left corner. Thompson made the three with 9:56 left in the first quarter, then hit another 51 seconds later off a Davion Mitchell pass.
Giannis Antetokounmpo’s between-the-legs pass to Klay Thompson. Video: NBA on X.
Antetokounmpo said he was trying to beat the defense before the ball got deflected. “When I dove down to get the ball, I kept my balance, and I knew… it’s a split of a second,” he said. “I know he cannot — sorry — he doesn’t move that much. So I knew he’s still gonna be there. So I was just like, OK, let me just try to get my hands over the ball and try to get it as fast as I can back to him. And he was ready.” He said he had made the same pass before, with the Bucks, in a January 2018 game against Washington.
Giannis Antetokounmpo on the pass to Klay Thompson. Posted by Zach Weinberger on X.
Erik Spoelstra said he did not see it coming. “I mentioned it in the preseason that we like it when he brings a little bit of Magic Johnson to the game. That was taking it to heart, taking it literally. I did not see that,” Spoelstra said. “I usually can see a pass that somebody’s going to make. I would never have predicted that pass to the corner. And then also, Klay just has a career of seizing a moment.” Asked when he last played quarterback himself, Thompson went back to his freshman year of high school.
Seven straight, then three threes in 2:32
Thompson picked up two fouls in the first quarter and a third with 7:17 left in the second, so most of his damage came after halftime. Early in the third he scored seven straight Miami points: a layup, a post-up fadeaway over Daniss Jenkins on a switch, and a 25-foot pull-up in transition that made it 77-66 and forced a Detroit timeout with 10:10 left in the quarter. He had nine points in the third.
Detroit cut a 17-point lead to nine early in the fourth, but Miami pulled away again, and Thompson finished it. He hit threes at 4:33, 2:25 and 2:01, the middle one assisted by Antetokounmpo, to push the lead from 115-102 to 127-110. Cade Cunningham scored 33 for the Pistons, who played without Jalen Duren.
Klay Thompson’s 26 points against Detroit. Video: NBA on X.
‘He can be the best player in the world’
Antetokounmpo finished with 34 points, 14 rebounds and eight assists on 13-of-17 shooting, a night after scoring 37 against Cleveland, and Thompson was asked what it is like to play next to him. “Oh, it’s incredible. He’s so special. I mean, Giannis gets 35 and 10 like it’s nothing, and when he throws in seven, eight, nine dimes, he can be the best player in the world, man,” Thompson said. “I’m lucky to be on the receiving end of that.”
Klay Thompson on Giannis Antetokounmpo. Posted by Zach Weinberger on X.
Antetokounmpo described what happens to a defense when he has the ball in the mid-post and Thompson is on the wing. “It’s like a moment of like a malfunction, because whoever’s guarding Klay cannot leave him. And whoever is guarding me cannot leave me,” he said. “So you get like one or two seconds of a window that you can make a decision.” He called it “a great feeling to have a player like that out there because he makes the game easier for us.”
From 0-4 to 7-6
Thompson has been one of the biggest reasons for the turnaround. In Miami’s 0-4 start, he scored 9.0 points a game and shot 12-of-37 from the field and 11-of-33 from three. In the eight games he has played since, the Heat are 6-2, and he is averaging 18.5 points while making 37 of 81 threes (45.7%), including 30 points against the Clippers and 23 in Sacramento. For the season, he is at 15.3 points a game and 42.1% from three on 48 makes.
He said Saturday’s game is the kind of team he signed up for. “That’s why I’m here, because I saw an opportunity to play a great role on a team with big, big aspirations,” Thompson said. “And I still think we have levels that we can reach.” He added that it is still only mid-November and that the Heat cannot get complacent after starting 0-4.
Thompson, who turns 37 in February, also explained how he stays ready on a night like Saturday, when foul trouble kept him on the bench for long stretches. “At my big age now, I go get on the exercise bike, so I keep my knees loose,” he said, adding that he watches the game from the bench to look for where his shots will come from. He played only 20 minutes and said he still felt fresh.
Klay Thompson on staying ready after missing Friday’s game. Posted by Zach Weinberger on X.
The Heat continue their five-game homestand against the Houston Rockets on Monday, November 16, at 7:30 p.m. ET (2:30 a.m. Tuesday, Cairo time).
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