The NBA regular season continues with the Mavericks hosting the Spurs today, and they won 120-109 against the Spurs. Klay Thompson, who just joined the Mavericks this offseason, also made his Mavericks debut today, and he played very well today, scoring 22 points, 7 rebounds, 1 assist and 3 steals on 6-of-10 shooting from beyond the three-point line and 7-of-13 shooting overall. The plus/minus is the highest in the starting lineup.

Through this game, we can see that Thompson and the Mavericks can be said to be seamless, especially Doncic and Irving's strong ability to attract defense can create a lot of open shooting opportunities for Thompson. A lot of Thompson's shots today were open shots. Today on the offensive side of the half, Thompson had a big open shot with no one to defend in front of him. And when Thompson was shooting, Doncic directly chose to turn his head back to defense, which shows how much he believes in Thompson's shooting ability. You know, we've often seen Curry make such a move on the Warriors before, and now Doncic is finally enjoying Curry's previous happiness.

Thompson's ups and downs with the Warriors last season were largely due to his many forced shots, that is, strong shots against defenders. But once you come to the Mavericks, you'll find that Thompson's shooting environment has changed for the better, because Irving and Doncic have a strong ability to tear up the defense. Thompson was given more open spots. And Doncic is a tall point guard who is very good at finding open players in the half-court offense. And it will deliver the ball to his hand with precision.

When the three of them are on the field at the same time, it is difficult for the opponent to make defensive choices. When Irving and Doncic break through, they will definitely attract other people's defenses along the way, or they will be scored directly by the two of them. And while attracting the defense, Thompson will be in an open position. In other words, for defenders, you can't have it both ways. It's hard for them to judge on the defensive end, such as when Doncic was open in one round today, and the defender actually went to defend Doncic and let go of Thompson next to him. Thompson then decisively punished the opposing defense with a three-pointer.

So if Thompson had been in this shooting environment, we could basically have concluded that he wouldn't have the ups and downs of shooting this season like last season. Perhaps Thompson's shooting percentage against defenders is not as good as it was at his peak at the moment. However, he is still among the top in the league for the time being. So bringing in Thompson by the Mavericks was definitely a successful move. Their improvement is visible to the naked eye, which is more than one level stronger than Hardaway last season. Therefore, the Mavericks are likely to continue to be the favorites for the championship in the new season.