The Golden State Warriors needed a vintage fourth quarter from shooting guard Klay Thompson to avoid their third consecutive loss.
Thompson did not disappoint scoring 10 of the Warriors first 11 points and finishing the quarter with 16 of the 22 points that got scored. He ended up with 33 points which is a season-high for him.
Golden State struggled to get the offense going during the first few minutes and the only highlight at that point was an outstanding block by Austin Reaves of the Los Angeles Lakers. Yet after a bad pass from LeBron James the momentum shifted as Thompson got his revenge and a three-point play as well.
After Reaves got his shot blocked by Andrew Wiggins, Lakers head coach Frank Vogel got hit with a technical foul. Jordan Poole made the free throw and Thompson buried a fadeaway jumper to get the Warriors within two.
James then missed a three and Thompson came back on the other end and tied the game with a jumper. The Lakers then scored the next six points and it seemed the game was getting away from the Warriors after Stephen Curry missed a layup. Yet Los Angeles was not able start a fast break on what seemed like an easy two points. Incredibly the ball wound up in the hands of Thompson instead and he buried a three.
Once again James turned the ball over which led to a tough pull up three by Wiggins that tied the game. A questionable foul call led to two free throws made by Reaves.
Poole then took an ill-advised deep three and it was so off that Otto Porter Jr., got the offensive rebound and was able to find Thompson and with his signature quick release he made the three to put the Warriors up two with a little over one-and-a-half minutes left in the game.
Anthony Davis got fouled and was at the free throw line, yet made the first and missed the second. After a battle for the rebound, James got whistled for a foul and the Warriors got the basketball. There were no free throws given since it was the first Lakers foul in the last two minutes.
Still even more surprising was how quiet Stephen Curry was, yet he was able to take Reaves off the dribble and made a tough layup to put Golden State up three with 46.2 seconds left. On the ensuing possession for the Lakers, Russell Westbrook nearly turned the ball over, yet the ball got kicked.
The Lakers got the ball with 17 seconds left on the shot clock. Still James wound up missing, and Thompson collected his fifth rebound of the game. The Warriors elected to run as much clock as possible with Curry taking a three that got missed.
Los Angeles took their last timeout with 7.3 seconds left.
Interestingly enough James was the one called upon by Vogel and the Lakers to tie the game up. It appeared that Curry elected to foul before the three-point attempt, yet after a discussion by the referees, the ruling was three free throws. Golden State already used a challenge earlier in the game and were unable to do so at this point.
So what did James do? He missed the first free throw, made the second, and attempted a high arching third attempt which he missed on purpose. Time ran out and the Warriors ended up winning by two thanks to the heroics of Thompson.