By Anthony Caruso III | Publisher
The Golden State Warriors lost the NBA Finals on Thursday night. But for the second game in a row, one of their stars suffered a significant injury.
Klay Thompson — who went down in the third quarter — suffered a torn ACL injury. He was going for a breakaway dunk when he was hit by Toronto Raptors guard Danny Green in Game 6 of the NBA Finals at ORACLE Arena when the injury happened.
The hit caused Thompson to come down awkwardly. After falling to the ground, Thompson knew immediately something wasn’t right with his knee.
He was injured with 2 minutes and 22 seconds left in the third quarter. Golden State was leading 83-80 when he went down with his injury.
After getting up, Thompson was taken to the locker room, but briefly came back to attempt to free throws. Following a foul by DeMarcus Cousins, Thompson exited the game.
He attempted to convince the doctors that he was able to give it a go again. However, after Kevin Durant’s injury in Game 5, the medical staff did not allow him to return.
Thompson left the building on crutches. In Game 5, Durant left the building on crutches after tearing his Achilles.
Durant is expected to miss the 2019-20 season with his injury. Thompson is facing an eight-to-12 month recovery.
Both players are not going to be the same immediately when they come back. It is going to take them several years to be back to a top player — especially in Durant’s case with his torn Achilles.
“It’s amazement that we’re sitting in this position with … during the game, we have a chance to win the game and force a Game 7, go back to Toronto — you just think, ‘How? How has this group of guys put themselves in position to do it?’” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said when asked what went through his head when Thompson went down. “And then, as I said, when Klay goes down and is out for the game, it’s just sort of a, ‘You gotta be kidding me. This has to stop.’
“But it’s just … the way it’s gone, I don’t know if it’s related to five straight seasons of playing 100-plus games and just all the wear and tear, but it’s devastating.”
