Klay Thompson turns back the clock: Carries Golden State Warriors past Washington Wizards

The Golden State Warriors came into tonight on a mission, as they lost a tough matchup to the Denver Nuggets in their previous game. Klay Thompson put on a vintage performance as he led his team to a 123-112 victory over the Washington Wizards at Capital One Arena.

After a slow start to this season, the Warriors have been able to get back on track and push their way up the standings. It’s been a rough year for former All-Stars Klay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins, Draymond Green, and Chris Paul, but luckily superstar Stephen Curry has been able to keep the team afloat with the help of rising stars Jonathan Kuminga and Brandin Podziemski.

In this contest, it was all about Klay, as he put on a flashback performance off the bench. He scored 25 points while shooting 6/11 from deep, reminding everyone that he’s still one of the Splash Brothers. The other member of that duo, Steph Curry, struggled tonight, scoring 18 points on 29% shooting.

Jonathan Kuminga had a very efficient night, hitting 10/13 shots for 21 points. Draymond Green finished with 6 points, 8 rebounds, and 8 assists. Chris Paul returned tonight after missing the previous 21 games due to injury. He came off the bench and played 22 minutes, recording 9 points, 4 rebounds, 6 assists, and 4 steals.

For the Wizards, they had 3 players score 20 or more led by Kyle Kuzma with 27 points and 12 rebounds. Corey Kispert had 20 points with 4 made threes while Marvin Bagley recorded 20 points and 9 rebounds on 73% shooting. Tyus Jones did an amazing job facilitating tonight, as he had 17 assists to go along with his 14 points. Jordan Poole finished with 12 points off the bench against his former team.

This win improves the Warriors to 30-27, which makes them 9th in the Western Conference and 3.5 games away from the 6th seeded Pelicans for the last playoff spot. This win is huge for Golden State as they are fighting to avoid the play-in. They are 8-2 over their last 10 games and will look to build off this victory on Thursday against the New York Knicks.

Meanwhile, this loss drops the Wizards to 9-49, which makes them 14th in the Eastern Conference. There are a lot of question marks surrounding Washington as they have yet to decide who their core players are moving forward, and this is something they hope to address in the offseason. They are on a 12-game losing streak and will try to snap that on Thursday against the Los Angeles Lakers.