There's Something Wrong With Klay Thompson

Klay Thompson—a human hot plate who singlehandedly defrosted Golden State's frigid attack when they needed it most during last year's Western Conference Finals, and is famous for unfathomably dropping 60 points in just 29 minutes against the Indiana Pacers earlier this season—has turned into an icicle.

In the Warriors' victory over the San Antonio Spurs in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals on Sunday, Thompson finished with six points in 39 minutes. It was the second time in his entire career he scored so few in at least that much playing time. That's pretty bad, but even worse is that it feels more like a trend than an outlier: the first time Thompson scored six or fewer points in at least 38 minutes was just two weeks ago, against the Utah Jazz.

Against the Spurs, Thompson missed nine shots and made two, with a critical late-game turnover that almost resuscitated a desperate San Antonio team that was scrambling for answers after Kawhi Leonard left the game with a sprained ankle.

Thompson doesn't look like a three-time All-Star and NBA champion, and his struggles relative to last year's playoff run are interesting when you remember his reaction to Kevin Durant's decision last season.

Thompson isn't sacrificing numbers so much as he's failing to capitalize on the opportunities he still has. Yes, his per-game touches have declined from 49.3 to 41.4, and his usage rate has shrunk from 28.0 to 21.8, but the Warriors aren't asking him to do anything differently. For whatever reason, Thompson is ending possessions with indifferent ellipses more frequently than his standard exclamation points.

He's averaging 15 points per game with a microscopic 8.7 PER. Both are the lowest marks of his career. He's barfing up threes at a putrid 29 percent clip when the closest defender is between 2-6 feet away. (During the regular season that number was 41.2 percent.) Again: weird.

Last year, Thompson took more shots than every other player in the playoffs. Only seven players averaged more field goal attempts (18.9) per game, and Steph Curry and Damian Lillard were the only ones to jack up more threes (9.6).

Thompson separated himself from the pack on catch-and-shoot attempts and carried the Warriors when Curry wasn't healthy or in the game. The Warriors averaged 2.7 more points per 100 possessions when Thompson played without Curry on the floor, while Thompson's usage increased without any negative effect on his true shooting percentage. It was fair enough to say he looked like a top-10 player.

Not anymore. Golden State's offense is averaging 28.6 (!!!) more points per 100 possessions when Curry and Thompson share the floor as opposed to when Thompson is alone. (Curry and the Warriors are mostly unaffected whether Thompson is on the court or not). His usage spikes eight percent while his true shooting nosedives by 14.3 percent. Not great.

Thompson has only eclipsed the 20-point barrier twice in nine playoff games this year after doing so 50 times in 78 regular-season starts, and 16 out of 24 times during last year's postseason run to the Finals. Oddly enough, Thompson's above-the-break three-point percentage is actually slightly higher than it was during the 2015-16 playoffs, but his shot distribution is totally off.

Thompson still thrives off spot-up attempts and leads all players in catch-and-shoot tries, but the percentage of those taken from the mid-range is much higher than last year—a 14.3 percent increase, which doesn't really help if the Warriors want to maximize the unrivaled, unguardable skill Thompson brings to the table. He's taking a ton of long twos and isn't nearly as efficient coming off screens as he normally is. There's always stand-in-the-corner-and-space-the-floor value when you've been as freakishly accurate for as long as Thompson has been, but the Warriors aren't nearly as dangerous against locked-in opposition when he isn't the engaged fireball who can't be ignored for a split second.

The Warriors haven't really needed his offense yet, but there'll come a time very soon—whether it be in this series or the NBA Finals—when they will. Time is running out for Thompson to make the type of difference Golden State is so accustomed to seeing.