Four highlights from Warriors’ easy victory over Bulls

Klay Thompson goes off for 28 points

Klay Thompson doesn’t wear his heart on his sleeve like Draymond Green does. Like the rest of the team he’ll celebrate exciting moments and, occasionally, get angry at bad calls. But for the most part, he’s, generally, mild-mannered.

The last few days have been an emotional roller coaster for Thompson. His grandfather passed away on Monday so Thompson was away from the team for a few days. He was up in Vancouver with his family for the funeral, mourning the loss.

Thompson returned to the team to get back to work. His birthday was on gameday, turning 27 years old. It has to have been a tough way to celebrate your birthday.

But Thompson, being the professional that he is, laced them up and stepped onto the court. He was absolutely magnificent. The sharpshooter led all scorers with 28 points, draining six three-pointers in the process.

The fact that he scored 28 points isn’t necessarily impressive (though that could be telling of how desensitized Warriors fans are). The circumstances in which he did it in are. It’s not a reach to say that Thompson was playing with a variety of emotions and his performance was special.

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After the game, Thompson joked that it was nice to finally get a professional win on his birthday because he had lost the previous two games. He told the media that he was thinking about his grandfather on the court and that he would have been proud.

Sometimes we forget these players are actual human beings that aren’t immune to real life problems. While Thompson’s performance won’t go down in history like Michael Jordan’s emotional games, it’s still a very impressive and, quite frankly, gutsy one.