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With the Golden State Warriors down 3-2 after beating the Toronto Raptors in Game 5 of the 2019 NBA Finals, it’s almost impossible not to think back to the last time we found ourselves in a deep hole in the playoffs.
And no, we’re not considering anything that happened against the Houston Rockets dire.
Back in the 2016 NBA Playoffs — before the infamous blown 3-1 lead at the hands of LeBron James and Kyrie Irving — the Warriors found themselves down 3-1 against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Finding themselves on the ropes in Game 6, Klay Thompson scored 41 points, including 11 threes, to help the Warriors advance to the Finals.
Daniel Hardee already detailed Thompson’s pattern of Game 6 heroics in an article yesterday, but with Kevin Durant and a number of other players banged up the Warriors will need even more from the quieter half of the Splash Brothers.
As more encouragement if you’re still nervous, Thompson has been getting increasingly more productive with every game ... so ... he’s due for a big one tonight?
Klay Thompson in the #NBAFinals
— Andrés Alvarez (@NerdNumbers) June 13, 2019
Game 1: 3 three-pointers
Game 2: 4 three-pointers
Game 3: Out (woulda been 5 three-pointers)
Game 4: 6 three-pointers
Game 5: 7 three-pointers
My linear regression model has him for 8 threes tonight.
But why settle for eight threes? Thompson is just 15 threes away from catching legendary shooter Ray Allen for the second-most threes of all-time, according to Basketball-Reference ... so why don’t we just go ahead and knock out another milestone tonight for good measure?
Anyway, as we discussed on the podcast published today, we here at Golden State of Mind are feeling pretty confident about a Game 6 win tonight. Join us in the comments to experience history unfold with us.