{"id":108162,"date":"2024-11-20T20:34:27","date_gmt":"2024-11-21T01:34:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=108162"},"modified":"2024-11-20T20:34:27","modified_gmt":"2024-11-21T01:34:27","slug":"mavericks-thompson-irving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/11\/20\/mavericks-thompson-irving\/","title":{"rendered":"Mavericks Klay Thompson Praises Past Finals Foe"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dallas Mavericks are slowly finding their way this season after moving above the .500 mark with Tuesday night’s win over the injury-ravaged\u00a0<\/span>New Orleans Pelicans<\/span><\/a>. It also happened to be an NBA Cup schedule matchup, which moved the Mavericks to 1-1 for the mini-tournament. The 132-91 blowout was fun to watch, but one particular Mavs player received much of the attention afterward.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mavericks Klay Thompson Praises Past Finals Foe<\/h2>\n

Mavericks Klay Thompson Labels Teammate Kyrie Irving ‘Amazing’<\/h3>\n

‘One of the best shooters in NBA history’\u2014the words Mavericks sharpshooter\u00a0<\/span>Klay Thompson<\/span><\/a>\u00a0uttered to describe teammate\u00a0<\/span>Kyrie Irving<\/span><\/a>\u00a0in the team’s postgame press conference. Not too long ago, the two were in four consecutive NBA Finals appearances\u2014Thompson with the\u00a0<\/span>Golden State Warriors<\/span><\/a> and Irving with the\u00a0<\/span>Cleveland Cavaliers<\/span><\/a>. In that epic four-year finals run, Thompson came out on top three out of four times, while Irving, alongside\u00a0<\/span>LeBron James<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0were the victors in 2016. Much has changed since then, no doubt about it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Fast forward to 2024. Klay and Kyrie running the court, are passing each other the ball, and trying to get each other open looks in the same jersey. The pair appear to be enjoying each others company while trying to get their team, led by\u00a0<\/span>Luka Doncic<\/span><\/a>, on track after a sluggish start to the season. Following their 41-point win over the Pelicans,\u00a0<\/span>Thompson took to the stand and spoke highly<\/span><\/a> [1:15 mark] of his once-upon-a-time finals foe.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s amazing, I mean, I played with Kyrie on USA Teams. I’ve faced him plenty of times, I’ve guarded him plenty of times\u2026 He’s so amazing,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cHis body control, his handle, his shot, he’s really one of one. It’s a blessing to be his two-guard\u2026 He’s one of the best shooters I’ve ever played with. He’s a three-point contest champion. He\u2019s incredibly efficient, just look at his career numbers. It’s ridiculous.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s a sentiment that flows through most major sports when an opposing player joins the team of a rival. One party always says something along the lines of feeling relief that they no longer have to go up against the other any longer. It’s especially common in the NFL. For instance, when a wide receiver joins another team. The corner or safety will acknowledge that they no longer have to guard that lethal receiver on the line of scrimmage. The common theme is “They’re on our side now.” Now, both Kyrie and Thompson know what it feels like.<\/p>\n

Luka Is the Driver, Kyrie the X-Factor<\/h3>\n

Thompson wasn’t the only one to tout Kyrie’s elite capabilities. Both Doncic and head coach\u00a0<\/span>Jason Kidd<\/span><\/a>\u00a0admired them postgame, too. When Irving joined Dallas two seasons ago, that particular season ended in sour fashion. However, last season, Kyrie and Luka’s first full one together, they clicked better than expected. That “click” was the driving force that put the Mavericks in the finals.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While adding Thompson was a massive move over the summer, it’s still on Kyrie to be the team’s x-factor. Luke will pour in the points and lead the team, but their season hinges heavily on Kyrie’s shoulders. If he doesn’t play well, Thompson is not the player he was two or three years ago. In that case, Luka will find it hard-pressed to carry the team on his own. So, Kyrie’s play, scoring, and everything Thompson listed off in his praise of Kyrie is critical for the Mavericks to return to the finals this season. The good thing is, Kyrie is playing outstanding basketball so far.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Dallas Mavericks are slowly finding their way this season after moving above the .500 mark with Tuesday night’s win over the injury-ravaged\u00a0New Orleans Pelicans. It also happened to be an NBA Cup schedule matchup, which moved the Mavericks to 1-1 for the mini-tournament. The 132-91 blowout was fun to watch, but one particular Mavs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5081,"featured_media":108163,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[30,1608,62],"tags":[218,70,406,38,1133],"class_list":["post-108162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mavericks","category-basketball","category-nba","tag-jason-kidd","tag-klay-thompson","tag-kyrie-irving","tag-lebron-james","tag-luka-doncic"],"modified_by":"Aaron J Zacharias","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5081"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}