MANILA — After ending a 13-year with the Golden State Warriors last July by leaving for the Dallas Mavericks in the off-season, Klay Thompson returned to the Bay Area on Tuesday night (Wednesday AM Manila time).
Showered with love from a grateful fan base, Thompson didn’t disappoint with a performance reminiscent of his days as a Splash Brother, finishing with 23 points on 7-of-17 shooting including 6-for-12 from 3.
But it wasn’t enough to beat the Warriors at The Chase Center in downtown San Francisco, 120-117.
Ironically, it was his longtime backcourt partner — Stephy Curry — who carried Golden State by scoring his team’s last 12 points. Curry ended up with 37 points while hitting 14 of his 27 field goals.
Luka Doncic led Dallas with 31 points and 6 assists while Kyrie Irving finished with 21 but the Mavericks fell despite hitting 52.4 percent from the field and 32 percent from 3-point distance.
Despite an emotional, highly charged return, Thompson dubbed the encounter as “just another regular season game in November.”
But it wasn’t.
A full-house crowd of 18,064 came to greet their former hero while the team gave away captain hats to ticket-holders as a tribute to Thompson who used to travel to the arena by boat.
The surprising Warriors improved to 9-2 for the season while the Mavericks dropped to 5-6.
