Klay Thompson Helped Off With Bad Knee Injury, Heroically Returns, Sinks Free Throws, Runs Back Off, Is Out

Toward the end of the third quarter of Thursday night’s Game 6 in Oakland, Klay Thompson landed awkwardly after he was fouled on a breakaway layup by Danny Green, and appeared to badly mess up his left knee. Klay has already missed a game of this series with an injured left hamstring; the Warriors are of course already playing without Kevin Durant; Kevon Looney is playing with fractured chest cartilage; DeMarcus Cousins is hobbling around on a recovering quadriceps. It’s a bad scene.

Klay was down on the court for a minute and appeared to be in a lot of pain, and then had to be helped off the floor. But as was mentioned on the broadcast, because the injury happened on a foul, if Klay could not remain in the game long enough to attempt his free throws, he would be disqualified from the remainder of the game. Needless to say, that would be a horrible loss for the Warriors. A Warriors assistant appeared to run down the tunnel and remind Thompson of this fact, whereupon Klay turned around and hobbled back to the floor, where he was greeted by a huge roar from the home crowd.

Klay buried the free throws, and the Warriors used an intentional foul to stop play so that Klay could be substituted out without any penalty. Klay was able to jog back to the Warriors locker room, but Doris Burke reported in the fourth quarter that despite his best efforts, Klay would not be able to return to the floor. He had 30 points on just 12 shots and was arguably the best player on the floor prior to his injury. This is getting ridiculous.