Klay Thompson gets benched, responds by scoring 35 as sixth man in Warriors win

Rookie Brandin Podziemski has been better than Klay Thompson this season.

Which is a crazy thing to say/write, but it’s been true, especially in the past month. Because it’s crazy and flies in the face of Thompson’s Hall of Fame career, it took coach Steve Kerr a long time to come around. Maybe Thompson’s mistake intentional foul at the end of the loss to the Clippers — a Podziemski 3-pointer had the Warriors down 126-123 with :39 seconds left, enough time to get a stop then hit a 3 to tie it, but Thompson intentionally fouled Westbrook in the backcourt and sent him to the line where he made it a four-point game and the Warriors lost — was the final straw.

Thursday night against the Jazz, Podziemski started and Thompson became the sixth man.

Thompson responded with his best game of the season, scoring 35 in a Warriors win.

Thompson accepted the change and leaned into it. Here’s what he said in a halftime walk-off broadcast interview, via Monte Poole at NBC Sports Bay Area.

“Coming off the bench gave me fresh legs, especially on a back-to-back, that was nice to come in with a fresh, clean slate,” Thompson said.

Kerr said the key was that the new starting lineup — Stephen Curry, Podziemski, Andrew Wiggins, Jonathan Kuminga and Draymond Green — was the best unit the team has had. That five is a team-best +57 this season.

“I’ve been thinking about it,” Kerr told reporters in Salt Lake City. “The lineup with Brandin out there with Wiggs, JK, Draymond and Steph has been by far our best lineup. BP connects the game. He rebounds, he does some things that really help the other guys. I’ve been thinking about it, decided to do it tonight and talked to Klay this morning. I thought he handled everything beautifully.”

It’s a needed boost for a Warriors team sitting 10th in the West and trying to climb up in the standings, and to, at the very least, put themselves in a better position for the play-in tournament (the Warriors are five games back of the No. 6 seed, a lot to make up with 29 games left in the season).

We will see how long this lasts, but Podziemski isn’t going anywhere. The rookie is here to stay.