The NBA is back, and so is the pettiness.
During Klay Thompson’s scorching debut in a Mavericks uniform Thursday night, the team’s X account trolled the Warriors, seeming to pose the question of if Thompson and Luka Doncic were the new Splash Brothers.
The post appeared immediately after Doncic set up Thompson for a three, the latter’s fifth make of the night from deep. Less than two minutes later, Doncic would find the veteran sharpshooter for another three as the Mavs blew the game open en route to a 120-109 win.
Thompson’s six threes for the night meant he set a new franchise record for most threes by a Mavericks debutant.
Some Warriors fans took issue with the post, seeing as Thompson and Stephen Curry earned the moniker of the Splash Brothers for their many years of splashing threes in Golden State.
However, on the surface, it’s not exactly sacrilegious to refer to Thompson and Doncic as the new splash brothers. The Slovenian made the second-most threes in the league last year with 284 behind only Curry, who sank 357 threes in 74 games. Thompson was fourth on the list with 268 threes in 77 games in his last season as a Warrior.
As such, Thompson and Doncic could combine to shoot over 600 threes in their first season as Mavericks teammates. Not too shabby.
Thompson couldn’t stop raving about his new teammate after Thursday’s win, anticipating that he will be getting “great looks” from deep all year due to the gravity created by Doncic.
“What an incredible talent,” Thompson said of Doncic, via ESPN’s Tim MacMahon. “I mean, it doesn’t make any sense, because what we’re taught growing up as far as being the best basketball player is you got to jump the highest, you got to run the fastest, but somehow Luka defies that. He plays at his own speed and manipulates the game as good as I’ve ever seen anyone do it. And it’s great to be a recipient of that and get great looks.”
It’s worth noting that Thursday wasn’t the first instance of Dallas trolling its Western Conference foe. Soon after Thompson joined them as a free agent, the Mavericks invoked the “Hello, Klay Thompson” phrase to announce his signing via X, which was a reference to Curry’s son, Canon, famously shouting the phrase at Thompson after a game in Dec. 2022.
Thompson will face his former team for the first time on Nov. 12 when he returns to San Francisco for an away game. It will undoubtedly be an emotional night for Thompson, his former teammates and the Warriors fanbase.