Since coming back from a 3-1 deficit in the NBA Finals, the Cleveland Cavaliers have been consistently trolling the Golden State Warriors.
The most notable example came during LeBron James’ recent Halloween party, that included ‘3-1 lead’ decorations, and tombstones of Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry.
Thompson made it known he wasn’t pleased with the gesture, and doubled down on Thursday morning when speaking with Sam Amick of USA Today, calling the Cavaliers’ antics this season ‘childish’.
“It’s obviously not respectful, so it’s got to be on the other side of the spectrum, so that’s fine with us,” Klay said. “They can do that childish stuff. It doesn’t matter to us. All we’ve got to do is handle it on the court, you know?”
Klay says the issue didn’t come up on the court during the Warriors’ 109-108 Christmas Day loss, but told Amick that it may have to moving forward.
“No it didn’t (come up on the court in the Christmas Day game). But shoot, it might have (to),” Klay said. “I mean, I still think we need to play with more of an edge next time we see them…I mean when we won the championship, though, we didn’t do some stuff like that. But that’s OK. People are built differently. We’re not going to – I’m not going to hold it against them.”
The Warriors have lost to Cleveland in four consecutive games, something Thompson is itching to change on Monday.
“There’s a history between both teams, (and) we wanted to send a message that it’s going to be a tough out every time they see us. And obviously we know (they could meet again) down the line in June.”
“That’s why we wanted to win so bad, you know, is because we still have a bad taste in our mouth – as we should, we’re competitive. But it didn’t help. We were right there. We had the game in hand. We just didn’t play Warriors style brand of ball, so give them credit though – they beat us. And it’s one regular season game, so you can’t get too caught up in what we did wrong and the whole rivalry and all that.”
“I’m just going to go out there, and we just want to beat them down next time we see them,” Klay concluded. “That’s how it is. Hold that in the memory bank, and just remember that they do that stuff…It’s a good rivalry, and it’s good for the NBA. It makes it more fun, you know? It’s rare in pro sports you get rivalries like this, so we enjoy it, and we embrace it.”
