Once a ‘Splash Brother’, always a ‘Splash Brother’.
In his return trip to northern California, Klay Thompson scored 16 of his 23 points in Dallas’ dominant second quarter to get payback for his lackluster performance in Sacramento a year ago, helping the Mavericks beat the Kings y 14, 120-106, on Wednesday night to advance in the Play-In Tournament.
On the one-year anniversary when Thompson bricked all 10 shots in his final game as a member of the Golden State Warriors in a play-in loss in Sacramento, Thompson fueled the win with four triples during Dallas’ 44-point second quarter. That turned the game into a blowout and kept the Mavericks’ chaotic season alive for at least one more game.
“Human nature, when you end a season on a sour note like that you want to come out and prove people wrong,” Thompson said. “But I thought I did a good job to start the game of trying to dish, rebound, play defense. The shots came to me after that.”
Dallas advanced to play on the road at Memphis on Friday night for the opportunity to get into the playoff field as the eighth seed in the Western Conference. The winner of that game will open the playoffs on Sunday at top-seeded Oklahoma City.
The Mavericks have experienced a rough season that no one could have predicted, after trading 26-year-old superstar Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers in a blockbuster trade on February 1, that brought Anthony Davis to Dallas and drew ire from the fan base to the organization, especially GM Nico Harrison who pulled the trigger.
Embed from Getty ImagesStar point guard Kyrie Irving went down with a season-ending ACL injury shortly after that trade, putting a cap on any realistic hopes of another deep playoff run after making it to the NBA Finals last season against the Boston Celtics.
“We’ve had a tumultuous season to say the least,” Thompson said. “The injury bug has struck us like I’ve never seen before. But we’re still here playing postseason basketball. We can really give the city of Dallas some hope, especially if we go to Memphis and repeat this type of performance.”
Dallas opened the second quarter with a 20-6 run engineered by back-to-back 3-pointers from Thompson. Thompson buried two more 3-pointers later in the quarter as the Mavericks pushed the lead to 23 points at the half, removing any doubt or drama.
“We shot it very well, get stops on defense and were able to run,” said Davis, who led Dallas with 27 points to go with nine rebounds and three blocked shots. “Offense was clicking. We had what, 44 in the quarter? We played with a lot of pace and opened up the game.”
DeMar DeRozan led everyone with 33 points for the Kings, and Zach LaVine chipped in with 20.
It was a disappointing finish to an underwhelming season for the Kings, who fired Coach Mike Brown in December and traded star point guard De’Aaron Fox to the San Antonio Spurs in February. It all led to Sacramento missing the playoffs for the 18th time in 19 seasons, raising questions about the team’s future starting with the status of interim coach Doug Christie, who played for the franchise in the early 2000’s.
“This is where I want to be,” Christie said. “You guys know that. I need to finish what I started.”
The Sacramento Kings did not waste any time at all moving on from general manager Monte McNair after their season came to a painful end.
According to ESPN’s senior NBA insider Shams Charania, McNair and the Kings agreed to a mutual parting of ways following Wednesday’s game.
This is the fourth major shakeup for the organization in less than five months. Coach Mike Brown was fired on December 27 amid a 13-18 start to the season.
