Klay Thompson, who has been hot for the past two months, might be the Warriors’ final spark. Klay Thompson, who has been hot for the past two months, might be the Warriors’ final spark.

Let’s all agree to forget the 109-104 victory over the Timberwolves that the Warriors earned on Sunday. It was a circus there. But everything works out in the end. Yet thanks in large part to Klay Thompson, Golden State won this game despite trailing by as many as 12 points in the fourth quarter and being without the services of Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, and Andrew Wiggins.

If you’ve accepted the notion that Thompson has changed, you’ll be shocked to find that he has been burning hot for about two months at this point. He scored 32 points in total on Sunday, adding to his 42 points in a victory over Houston on Friday. Since the start of the year, he has averaged more than 26 points per game.

In that time, Thompson is making 12 3-pointers a game, or 44 percent of them. He’s already had two games this month with 12 3-pointers or more, and over his last two games, he’s made 18 3-pointers. His 30-foot 3 and one-leg floater over the final 50 seconds of the first half highlighted a momentum surge that will be forgotten with the way this game finished. He scored 11 of his 32 points on Sunday in the fourth quarter.

Thompson is at the top of the list of the numerous reasons why the Warriors, who are only one game above.500 and yet outside the play-in line, are still thought of as title candidates.

The Warriors have a relatively top-heavy lineup now, so those top players need to be great for it to function as a winning formula. However, with Thompson in vintage form and Jordan Poole looking like a bonfire waiting to erupt, the Warriors look armed to revert to that old team that was never out of the game and always within one or two nuclear stretches of burning a building to the ground. Green and Wiggins have typically been considered Golden State’s next two most crucial players after Curry, but with Thompson in vintage form.

When everyone is healthy, Golden State still boasts what is likely the best starting lineup in the league, but Curry’s unique brilliance is increasingly being blamed for the team’s high net rating. Curry has the ability to elevate nearly any five-man group to top status. It feels like the dynasty is still going strong when his sidekick is also in vintage form, which he has been for a considerable amount of time now.

It’s only a rumor right now. Curry has been absent a lot. Furthermore, Green and Wiggins have. The Warriors may have let the season get away from them too much by failing to build any meaningful positive momentum. However, the latitude has been earned. The Warriors, it seems, have the ability to turn the metaphorical switch when most teams can’t. They’ve got the knowledge. the lineage. In times of the fiercest competition, they seem to carry the same chip on their shoulder.

In many ways, that begins with Thompson, who is aware of all the chirping about him no longer being an All-Star. This season, he has become more than testy with a number of opponents. Booker, Devin David Brooks After one of his six 3-pointers on Sunday, he did it again by yelling towards the Minnesota bench.

The Warriors, who are currently tied in the loss column with the No. 6 Mavericks and just one loss behind the No. 4 Suns, could find themselves back in the thick of the title race if Thompson, who is as fierce a competitor as anyone in the league, can channel this chip and keep this two-month heater burning down the stretch of the regular season and into the playoffs.