SAN FRANCISCO — Klay Thompson’s lower lip quivered a little as he stood on the Chase Center court and watched the tribute video the Golden State Warriors made in his honor as he returned to face his former franchise for the first time.

Stephen Curry, Thompson’s teammate for all 13 of his years in the Bay Area, positioned himself in the tunnel near the home bench as the video played, needing space to protect himself from getting too emotional. Draymond Green, the other member of all four of Golden State’s championship teams during this period, had watched the video earlier to keep the emotions from overwhelming him at the time.

As the crowd showered Thompson with a lengthy standing ovation after the video, he managed to maintain his composure. He knew that wouldn’t have been possible if Curry gave a speech at midcourt, as originally planned as part of the festivities honoring Thompson. That’s why Thompson texted his “Splash Brother” the night before, when they agreed to cancel the speech and just let the fans express their appreciation.

“I was prepared for it,” Thompson told ESPN on Tuesday night after the Dallas Mavericks lost 120-117 to his former team in a thrilling NBA Cup opener. “I didn’t want to cry.”

Thompson was already overwhelmed when about 400 Warriors employees, wearing the captain’s hat given away to fans as a nod to the guard who famously cruised the Bay to home games, lined the hallway to give him a warm welcome as he nearly reached the entered the arena. three hours before tip-off. He couldn’t help but break into a big smile as he made the unfamiliar walk to the visitors’ locker room.

He was showered with appreciation during his pre-game shooting session more than an hour before tip-off, as thousands of fans watched from the stands, many wearing Thompson’s old No. 11 jersey and holding a pair of signs welcoming him to the Bay Area. Curry simultaneously went through his routine on the other side of the court, and the old backcourt comrades continued to look at each other, a scene Curry likened to the awkwardness kids felt on the asphalt of a playground at recess.

Then the sellout crowd roared for Thompson as the teams went through the layup lines, recognizing all of his accomplishments during his Golden State stint and “the aura around him that immediately connected our fans to him,” as Warriors coach Steve Kerr said before the match said.

“It was a really cool experience,” Thompson said. “I really appreciate the fans. The captain’s hat was a great perk because I’m such a passionate boater. I saw a lot of familiar faces in the crowd and that was a heartfelt feeling. It was really cool to see I see the fans, their gratitude towards myself – and something that I will never take for granted. So it was very, very wonderful.”

This was far from just “another regular-season game in November,” as Thompson claimed when discussing his return to the Bay Area after the Mavs’ loss in Denver on Sunday.

“I hope you guys didn’t believe him,” Curry said with a smile after his 37-point performance helped prevent Thompson from winning in his return.

The pregame ceremony was special. Thompson described playing against Golden State for the first time as “surreal.”

His competitive interactions with Curry were especially entertaining. That started right away, as the Mavs called a play for Thompson on the game’s opening possession, when he caught a pass on the left wing and set up Curry.

“That made me black out,” Curry said. “I didn’t want to let him score and I fouled him.”

Thompson made those free throws, the first two of his 22 points, matching his season high for the Mavs. He was 6-of-12 from three-point range, highlighted by a sequence midway through the second quarter when he hit 3s on consecutive possessions. He responded to the first of those back-to-back 3s with a shoulder roll and swept the celebration that Curry has made famous over the years.

“It was something improvised, but when you feel it, you do things instinctively,” Thompson said. “I’ve done it before. I know Steph has done it many times, so it was fun and playful to do. He was a little surprised that I did it, but it was a great opportunity and I’ll probably still do it do in the future I played my best brand of ball when I played loose.”

With a smile, Curry chided Thompson for the shimmy that came out of the next timeout. He also targeted Thompson with some trash talk after hitting an and-1 floater over him with seconds left in the first half.

“That’s the competitive nature,” Green said. “You don’t win four championships together without that competitive fire. He has that, we always have. That’s always going to happen. When you play against your brother, people always talk about, oh man, why are they so close? When you When you play against someone you have a good relationship with, you want to beat him even more.”

Thompson heated up again in the fourth quarter as the Mavs built a seven-point lead. He had a seven-point rush in a span of 2 minutes, 16 seconds, hitting a 3 to give the Mavs the lead, driving for a go-ahead goal to answer a Golden State bucket on the ensuing possession and hitting a transition 3 that caused a Golden State timeout with 5:16 to go.

But Curry got the final say, scoring 12 points in the final 3:10, including a step-back from 3 on Dallas center Dereck Lively II with 28.5 seconds left, which he punctuated with his “Night, night” -celebration.

“It was definitely a memorable night,” Curry said. “I know that even from July, when Klay decided to go to Dallas, where we came for training camp and he wasn’t there, it was a bit of a slow build-up to this night for everyone. … And granted, we won, so I I can say this, but I couldn’t imagine it would be any different if he played well, the audience got a great show, it went to the extreme. I can’t really portray it better – and certainly special memories to think about about the 13 years he was here and accomplished the four championships and everything we did, and then turned the page to where we are today.”

Thompson hugged Kerr just after the final buzzer. He then exchanged hugs with Curry, Green and a long line of Warriors players, coaches and staffers.

After Thompson wrapped up his post-game press conference, he put on one of the captain’s hats created for the evening and walked to the Warriors’ weight room to greet more Golden State staffers.

“Change happens,” Thompson said. “It’s happened to a lot of great players who have won championships together. But yeah, it was surreal and a night I’ll never forget. Unfortunately it was a tough loss. It could have easily gone our way, but that’s life and I think we’ll see the Dubs three more times. So there’s a lot more fights ahead of us, which is the fun part.”