It only took Klay Thompson 10 minutes to show Mavericks something must change

Over the weekend, Dallas Mavericks sharpshooter Klay Thompson dropped one of his most disappointing performances of the season against the Boston Celtics on national TV.

Thompson finished with six points while shooting 2-3 from downtown in this game, and he was hardly ever touching the ball. This was his first game back after missing two games with an ankle injury, and he was not getting good looks from behind the arc. He took advantage of the looks that he did get, but three shots from downtown for one of the best shooters of all time is unacceptable.

Mavericks fans were confuzzled about Thompson's extremely low volume in that game against Boston, and Thompson showed Jason Kidd just how deadly he can be from three when given the shots on Monday night against the Washington Wizards.

Thompson showed why the Mavericks must feed him early and often

In the first quarter alone, Thompson finished with 21 points while shooting 7-10 from downtown in just 10 minutes, and he showed Kidd exactly why he needs touches from three early on in games. He is too good of a shooter to not get involved right away, and Thompson's 3-point shooting has the chance to change everything for Dallas' offense when he is shooting as effectively and confidently as he was in the first quarter against the Wizards.

Thompson's seven threes in the first quarter tied a Mavericks franchise record for threes in a quarter set by Luka Doncic back in 2022, and this is the exact type of start he needed after not impacting the game much with his shooting on Saturday afternoon. Dallas looked motivated to get him involved right away, as he drilled a right corner three on the Mavs' second possession of the game, and he couldn't be stopped from that point forward.

Thompson clearly showed Kidd that he is more than capable of helping carry the offensive load when he can get some open looks, and the Mavericks must continue to find ways to get him open shots in the flow of the offense moving forward, even with Doncic out of the lineup. It's a given that Thompson plays better when Doncic is in the lineup, but that doesn't mean he can turn into an afterthought when Doncic is injured.

While most of Thompson's looks were open catch-and-shoot looks, they also ran a couple of off-ball actions to get him more open. Dallas must continue to mix in off-ball actions to get Thompson rolling, and these actions are some of the many ways that they can help him knock down multiple threes per game consistently.

Dallas must find creative ways to get Thompson involved in the offense and engaged, and making sure that he gets early touches will do just that. Feeding Thompson the ball at the beginning of games will only force the defense to close out harder on him, and that allows him to pick apart the defense with his underrated playmaking when he doesn't have a good look from downtown.

Thompson made multiple great passes to his teammates early on in the game against the Wizards, both to shooters on the perimeter and cutters diving to the rim, and fans saw how much a Thompson hot spurt can change a game.

These hot spurts will come back around for Thompson if the touches continue to roll in, and this was undoubtedly the best stretch of his Mavericks career.