Klay Thompson was more impressed by this Stephen Curry 3-pointer than his viral, miracle shot to beat Celtics
Written by CBS SPORTS ALL RIGHTS RESERVED on December 20, 2023
SAN FRANCISCO — While everyone in the building screamed and gawked at Stephen Curry’s miracle, high-arcing 3-point dagger to beat the Boston Celtics on Tuesday, Klay Thompson yawned.
Well, not really. But Thompson said that, while Curry’s bomb at the end of overtime to seal the Golden State Warriors‘ 132-16 win was “an incredible shot,” he was actually more impressed with a shot Curry made a few minutes earlier.
As the Warriors climbed back from a 17-point deficit, trailing by just three points with a minute and a half left in the fourth quarter, Curry found himself isolated against veteran Celtics big man Al Horford. Recognizing the mismatch, Curry aggressively motioned for Chris Paul to vacate the area at the top of the key, taking All-Defense guard Derrick White with him.
What ensued was a beautiful step-back 3-pointer over Horford’s outstretched arm that tied the game, and left Thompson in awe.
“I thought that step-back going right was even more impressive, though,” Thompson said after the game. “For anyone who shoots a basketball out there, they know how hard of a shot that really is. That was very impressive from Steph.”
Thompson might be the best shooter not named Steph Curry to ever roam the Earth, so when he speaks on the subject, it’s best that we listen. Getting the footwork and leg propulsion down on a move like that takes incredible effort, and the body needs to be completely in sync to pull it off. To do all that with a potential win against the Eastern Conference’s best team in the balance — you can see why Thompson was so impressed.
For comparison’s sake, here’s Curry’s overtime dagger (in case you somehow missed it).
While Curry got the accolades thanks to his late heroics on Tuesday, Thompson put together another strong game with 24 points on 6-for-15 3-point shooting. After a poor start to the season during which Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said his sharpshooter was “taking a lot of bad shots,” Thompson has settled in, going 23-for-43 from 3-point range over the last four games.
Leave it to a shooter to take the one shot that everyone marvels at and tell us that another one is actually more impressive.
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