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Tim MacMahon, ESPN Staff Writer
DALLAS — Klay Thompson folded the box score placed on the table in front of him into a paper airplane during the news conference following his debut with the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday night, continuing one of the postgame customs he developed throughout his 13 years with the Golden State Warriors.
Thompson was particularly proud of the plane’s flight after he launched it to the back of the room before exiting.
“Oh, look at that!” Thompson said. “It’s like an F-16.”
Thompson’s takeoff with his new franchise was pretty impressive, too.
Thompson scored 22 points in 26 minutes during the Mavs’ season-opening 120-109 win over the San Antonio Spurs on Thursday night. He was 7-of-13 from the floor and 6-of-10 from 3-point range, setting a franchise record for 3’s made in a Dallas debut. He contributed in the gritty aspects of the game as well, grabbing seven rebounds and three steals.
“He was great, man,” Mavs superstar Luka Doncic said. “Just knocking down a lot of shots and he was moving out there. He played great defense, too.”
Doncic described himself as “rusty” after missing the entire preseason because of a left calf contusion. He finished with 28 points, 10 rebounds and 8 assists, but Doncic was only 9-of-25 from the floor.
It was the first time that Doncic and Thompson played together outside of a pickup game and a handful of practices, but the chemistry between them clicked. Doncic assisted on four of Thompson’s seven buckets, one of the league’s premier playmakers setting up an all-time great shooter.
“It’s easy to play with a guy like that,” Doncic said. “It makes your life easier. You got to find him.”
It was the type of dynamic that Thompson envisioned when he chose to come to Dallas in free agency, a decision he has said he made in part out of a desire to play with Doncic.
“What an incredible talent,” Thompson said of Doncic. “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.”
Four of Doncic’s feeds to Thompson resulted in 3-pointers. On one of those in the fourth quarter, when Thompson popped out to the right wing after setting a back screen in a “Spain” pick-and-roll, he was so wide open that he had time to take a dribble before taking an uncontested shot.
Doncic began trotting back on defense as soon as he delivered the pass to Thompson. The big smile on Doncic’s face indicated how confident he was that Thompson would hit the shot.
“Happy I made it,” Thompson said. “Made him not look stupid.”
Thompson, a four-time champion with the Warriors, acknowledged that he felt “a lot of nerves, anxiousness” in his first official game for a new franchise. He calmed down after his shot early in the first quarter, when Thompson caught a pass from Doncic on the right wing, pump-faked to get former Golden State teammate Chris Paul to bite and took one dribble before knocking down a 19-foot pull-up jumper.
“Great debut,” Thompson said. “It’s only one game in October, but it feels good just to get that first one out of the way. … Just a ton of excitement, really just an awesome feeling. And you only get the first time of something so often.”