DALLAS — Klay Thompson sat answering questions Thursday after his record-breaking performance, delving into his feelings of gratitude and his perspective on a long season ahead, even after all those threes.

As he talked, he folded a statistics sheet into a paper airplane, stood at the podium and slid the plane past rows of reporters to the cameras at the back of the room.

Yes, Thompson still has it, and his first real game with the Dallas Mavericks couldn’t have gone much better. In contrast, San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama’s second professional season hasn’t started so well.

Thompson, co-author of the Splash Brothers dynasty with the Golden State Warriors, hit six 3-pointers with his new team in a 120-109 win for the Mavericks over the Spurs, a team record for 3s in a Dallas debut.

“My feelings for a few minutes were a lot of nerves and anxiety,” Thompson said. “It’s great to see one go through, and it was a great debut. It’s only one game in October, but it feels good to get the first one out of the way. And setting a record is always a great feeling, something I will never take for granted.”

WHAT A BEGINNING of the @KlayThompson era in Dallas:

🔥 22 PTS on 7-13 VGV
🔥 7 REB, 3 STL

He states one @dallasmavs record with 6 threes in his debut! pic.twitter.com/g3nQMBM9ty

— NBA (@NBA) October 25, 2024

Thompson, 34, joined the Mavs on a three-year contract worth $50 million as part of a six-team sign-and-trade deal after 13 seasons, five All-Star appearances and six Finals trips with the Warriors. He finished Game 1 for the Mavs with 22 points and seven rebounds, connecting on 7 of 13 from the field, including those six 3s.

His only two-pointer of the night came on his first shot, one of his famous pump fakes from the three-point line to mid-range for a jumper.

After struggling in the previous NBA Finals in a 4-1 loss to the Boston Celtics, adding a shooter of Thompson’s caliber was Dallas’ top priority. There are only 81 games and two months of playoffs remaining before we can see if the plan achieves the team’s desired goal, but the first step taken Thursday at American Airlines Arena was a positive one.

Thompson is a career shooter at 41 percent from 3-point range, owns the fourth-most 3s in NBA history and led the league in 3s in a season in 2023. His first three as a Maverick – a stepback bomb into the corner that we’ve seen countless times during his decade of greatness with the Warriors – came courtesy of Luka Dončić.

“Luka, what an incredible talent,” Thompson said. “It doesn’t make any sense because what we were taught growing up to be the best at basketball is that you have to jump the highest and run the fastest. Somehow Luka defies that; he plays at his own pace and does it as well as anyone I’ve ever seen do it. It’s great to be the recipient of this and get some great looks, and hopefully we can take each other’s games and our team to the next level.”

Dončić led Dallas, the defending Western Conference champions, with 28 points, while Wembanyama shot just 5 of 18 for 17 points in the Spurs loss.

Luka makes “easy” shots from double teams 🤯#KiaTipOff24 on TNT pic.twitter.com/nuyEex5AFU

— NBA (@NBA) October 24, 2024

Thursday night marked the first time Thompson, Dončić and Kyrie Irving played together, as Dončić did not appear in any of Dallas’ preseason games.

“Playing with (Thompson) makes my life easier,” Dončić said.

Dončić is a perennial MVP candidate for the Mavs, and while he had the typical game-day stats (10 rebounds and eight assists), he struggled on 9-of-25 shooting. He looked irritated as he shrugged and complained about missed shots. Not only did he not play in preseason, but he had not played competitively since an Olympic qualifying tournament for Slovenia just after the final.

“I played terribly,” Dončić said with a smile as he discussed the remarkable effort he put in defensively.

Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said the game, with his team trailing at the half, turned around and Dončić, Irving and Thompson picked up full-court defenses, leading to some steals and transition baskets.

Irving added 15 points on 6-for-17 shooting, and Dereck Lively II had a monster game off the bench with 15 points and 11 rebounds.

Wembanyama, the six-foot French sensation and reigning Rookie of the Year, added nine boards and one block to his total. He missed several layups and tap-ins at the rim, was 3-of-16 from the floor at one point and finished the game just 1-of-8 from 3-point.

The Mavericks appeared to throw multiple defenders at Wembanyama and pushed him out of position as he caught the ball with his back to the basket. Wembanyama played just 17 minutes in two preseason games and said on Thursday that conditioning was an issue for him.

“None of us have played a full match since, well, mid-summer for me (at the Olympics),” Wembanyama said. “It makes sense, but it’s a struggle that every player in the NBA goes through. It takes one or two matches (to get into shape); it has to be fast. … Conditioning is not really an excuse (for missed shots).”

Kidd said, “We just tried to keep him as far away from the paint as possible.”

Wembanyama especially struggled in his season debut last year as a rookie against the Mavs of all teams, when he scored just six points and committed five errors in three quarters. He got it done in a short time, leading all rookies in scoring (21.4), rebounds (10.6) and blocks (3.6) per game in 71 games for the Spurs.

He was also the league’s best blocker, joining Manute Bol as the only rookies to lead the NBA in blocks.

GO DEEPER

A stronger, more confident Victor Wembanyama hopes to apply the lessons he learned this off-season

Wembanyama became the first player in league history to score at least 1,500 points (1,522), collect 700 rebounds (755), dish out 250 assists (274) and block 250 shots (254), while making at least 100 3s (128) in a season.

The Spurs started last season as the youngest team in the NBA and finished with 22 wins. They entered the floor as a much older group, thanks to the offseason acquisitions of Harrison Barnes (who won a championship with Thompson and the Warriors in 2015) and Chris Paul. Barnes connected on his first five shots and finished with 17 points, while Paul added three points, seven boards and eight assists in his Spurs debut.

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich pulled all of his starters midway through the fourth quarter with the team trailing by 17.

Before Thursday’s game, Popovich was asked for his reaction to the offseason news that the Mavericks had acquired Thompson following a trip to the Finals.

“Oh my god. How the hell did they do that?” said Popovich. “I was probably having a glass of wine somewhere and it ruined my whole night.”

Thursday night didn’t go much better for him, and Thompson was the main reason.

Required reading

(Photo: Jerome Miron / Imagn Images)