It would have been better for Klay Thompson to have sent the ball straight into the whirling winds during Sunday’s Game 2 of the N.B.A. Finals. His tries at field goals swerved left and right, landed far, and fell short.

Afterward, Thompson tried to convince himself that he was a talented basketball player because he knew Golden State would need him to produce more as its series with the Celtics went on. So he turned on a laptop and saw old footage of someone he knew well: himself.

When he was a college student, he said, “the video guys would pull up a great game when everything seemed in unison, and your body was working so well that the ball was just flowing off your fingertips.” This was during his shooting slump.

Thompson said that all he had to do was look up “Game 6 Klay” on YouTube to get a number of well-known reminders of his long-range prowess. Most recently, to wrap off Golden State’s Western Conference semifinal series against the Memphis Grizzlies in Game 6, he scored 30 points and nailed 8 of 14 3-pointers. In Game 6 of the Western Conference playoffs against the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2016, he again had a legendary 41-point effort, hitting 11 of his 18 3-pointers.

“I shot the ball well, even though I was in some really high-pressure situations,” he remarked. “You can do the action at any time when you can do it with your back against the wall. It just requires maintaining a strong mental attitude.

Thompson, at the very least, has experience maintaining that mental toughness. His triumphant return after a two-season absence due to injury has resulted in his sixth appearance to the NBA Finals with Golden State. However, he was obviously dissatisfied with his performance in the second game vs Boston, as he ended with 11 points on 4 of 19 shots from the field. Positively, he pointed out, the Warriors shut out the Celtics to even the series before Wednesday night’s Boston game.

Thompson said, “It feels good going 4 for 19 and winning by 20,” in reference to Golden State’s 107-88 victory. “That’s preferable to going 13 for 19 and losing by ten.” I been there, and it’s never enjoyable.

Thompson wore one shoe to his press conference on Tuesday as he labored to have an insole fitted for the other. He was a work in progress in his own right, and he has remained such ever since his 941-day hiatus in January when he returned to uniform. He shot a career-low 38.5 percent from three in 32 regular-season games, but he showed glimpses of his old-time prowess, and his presence on the perimeter gave teammates like Stephen Curry more room.