It wasn’t so long ago that Kayla Thornton was an All-Star.
In Tuesday’s 92-81 Valkyries win over Toronto at home, she played like it again with a season-high 20 points.
“I think really she took another step in terms of her warm-up, you could tell she was laser-focused,” Valkyries head coach Natalie Nakase told reporters. “She had a focus about her today… I thought KT’s approach was at a high level.”
Thornton led Golden State in points and rebounds last season before she tore her meniscus right out of the break, ending her season. She rehabbed in the Bay Area during the offseason and returned to the Valkyries on a one-year deal.
This season, her role is different. Playing the four and at times, working as a five alongside fellow forward Janelle Salaun, Thornton is being relied upon heavily as a defender and board-getter.
But offensively, she still has had flashes.
Golden State is 5-1 in games where Thornton scores at least 15 points this season. Her 6-for-10 shooting night on Tuesday was one of her more efficient games. The last time she scored 20 points was last June when she scored 29 points against Chicago. She had four games of 20-plus points last season, all in June, right before she was named to her first All-Star team.
“(I was) just shooting the ball, doing what the defense gives me, and just staying consistent and putting the work in,” Thornton told reporters after the game. “My teammates trust me, and I trust them, and we just make it happen…It felt good. Shout out to my teammates for finding me, and like I said, the time that I put into my work and going out there, just doing what the defense gives me.”
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The win on Tuesday was Golden State at its best: strong bench performances from Janelle Salaun (21 points) and Tiffany Hayes (12 points) and a plus-15 from Veronica Burton.
But with All-Star Gabby Williams limited to 20 minutes for what Nakase called reconditioning, Thornton stepped up as the go-to scorer, a familiar role for her with this Valkyries team but one she hasn’t been asked to fill too often.
Nakase noted that sometimes the offense will flow to Williams or even Cecilia Zandalasini, and then Thornton serves as a threat to space the floor or contribute on the boards.
But when she has the hot hand, she’s as prolific as any other scorer in the lineup.
“KT always stays ready,” Nakase said. “Sometimes it’s matchup-based, like she has a better matchup or we’re able to get to the paint to spray. So just credit her for always staying ready every single game.”
Thornton and Salaun worked in the post in Tuesday’s mid-fourth quarter rotation, though against a smaller Toronto team that has had its own struggles in the paint. While up by eight with under five minutes to play, Kiah Stokes took over those defensive duties and Thornton had the chance to space the offense more.
“Once she sees that first one go in, it is trouble,” Nakase said. “Credit to her teammates for continuing to find the hot hand, but she does a really great job of just staying in the pocket of where she needs to go.
“Then her confidence. I really love her defense. I thought she came in with a sense of physicality that no one was going to get in there unless they were going to go through her, and so her start up at the defensive end to me was really impressive. I know she can knock that down with her eyes closed.”
Thornton is fifth in scoring this season and still second in rebounding. Her plus-4.8 trails only Burton for the best on the team.
She isn’t the centerpiece for Golden State this time around, but she is a reason they win games, and grateful for the role she still gets to play.
“It’s a blessing,” Thornton said. “I just stay consistent, take it game day by game day, and just keep going.”
