Warriors’ Klay Thompson ejected vs. Suns in 7-techincal foul 3rd quarter

Oct 25, 2022, 9:03 PM | Updated: Oct 26, 2022, 7:41 am

Arizona Sports

There’s a first time for everything. And that was certainly the case at Footprint Center on Tuesday night.

Golden State Warriors guard Klay Thompson was ejected in the third quarter for the first time in his career in the Phoenix Suns’ 134-105 win.

Warriors G Klay Thompson is ejected for the first time in his career and has a few words for the Suns bench on his way to the locker room. pic.twitter.com/pn3YqL0aJa

— Arizona Sports (@AZSports) October 26, 2022

The third quarter saw a total of seven technical fouls alone, which is the most since the 1996-97 season.

It all started with a no-call for Warriors’ Draymond Green, who felt he should’ve been given an and-one foul after getting sent to the floor by Suns’ Deandre Ayton while making a layup.

Green was given a technical for arguing and then Golden State head coach Steve Kerr was also issued a tech.

Chris Paul and Ayton also received T’s before the scrum between the two teams that saw Phoenix’s Devin Booker and Thompson each receive one technical foul.

The Warriors guard went back to his bench during a timeout, but then came back to get a few more words in, which referee Ed Malloy felt warranted a second tech and an ejection.

“I love Klay Thompson and I have from the beginning,” Booker told TNT’s Chris Haynes postgame. “From the draft coming out, I said I want to be Klay Thompson. But that doesn’t excuse us from competing against each other and talking a little mess with each other. So I had fun with it, big fan of his and his competitive nature. And that’s that.”

Devin Booker on what was said between he and Klay Thompson. pic.twitter.com/wGd2tpHbsj

— Arizona Sports (@AZSports) October 26, 2022

The ejection proved to be a shift in the game. The Suns, up just six points, went on an 11-0 run, and their lead was never truly threatened from there.

Thompson finished the ballgame with two points on 1 of 8 shooting and 0-for-5 from three in 18.5 minutes played.

And when Booker was his primary defender, Thompson was 0-for-4 and 0-for-3 from deep, according to ESPN Stats & Info.

“He and Book have gotten into it a little bit over the years,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr told reporters after the game. “I remember four or five years ago when Book was first coming up and Klay was in his prime, they went at it one night in Oracle. There were no ejections, but they’re both competitive and they’re guarding each other. Stuff like that happens.”