A lot went into the Warriors melt down in the NBA Finals last June, but can the bulk of the blame be placed on Klay Thompson running his mouth?
Thompson if you remember — gave LeBron the business in the media for his perceived snitching on Draymond Green and what Klay referred to as “hurt feelings.”
James had an epic game five, and the rest is history.
As the teams get set to face off for the first time since their Finals meeting on Christmas Day in Cleveland, Thompson told ESPN.com that he doesn’t regret the comments, nor does he believe that he provided the necessary bulletin board material for a Cavs comeback.
“No. Not at all. Because, at the end of the day, you have to go out there and do it on the court,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what was said. We lost. We moved on. We’re excited about this year.”
“I don’t think LeBron really went to sleep, pinned that up and used that for motivation. But if he did, it’s all right,” Thompson said. “We still had three opportunities to close it out, and we didn’t. So, I don’t think that was the game-changer.”
No NBA team had ever come back from a 3-1 deficit in The Finals, but that was before Thompson started running off at the mouth.