Amick: Cavs’ Thompson won’t back down,
Cleveland eager to cement status as NBA champs
Ask anyone not wearing a wine-and-gold jersey — or not named Steve Kerr — and you’ll hear the same conclusion about the NBA Finals that tip off at Oracle Arena on Thursday night: The Golden State Warriors, not the defending champion Cleveland Cavaliers, are the favorites.
This confuses Cavaliers big man Tristan Thompson, whose team finished 16 games behind the Warriors in the regular-season standings but still holds the Larry O’Brien Trophy after overcoming a 3-1 deficit to win it all last year.
“We’re the champs, so I never knew from the top of the mountain you could be an underdog,” Thompson said Wednesday. “But, hey, it is what it is. It makes it good for TV. Gets you guys more hits and views. It’s all good. However you guys eat, that’s fine with me.”
It’s not just the news media sending that message, though. While Golden State coach Kerr went out of his way to deem the Cavs the favorites this week, Warriors point guard Stephen Curry referred to the Cavs as the “quote-unquote” champs. As Thompson made clear, the Cavs noticed.
“We know they’re going to be playing with a chip on their shoulder, and they’re going to want to come out and prove (themselves) — especially with all their quote-unquotes or whatever they’ve been saying, so we’ll be ready,” Thompson said. “We’ll be ready to compete and play and leave it on the floor.
“At the end of the day, we’re the champs. You can say whatever you want. We’ve got to go out there and prove ourselves so that quote-unquote can disappear, right?”
REDEMPTION FOR GREEN?
It will go down as one of the great what-ifs in NBA playoff history.
What if the Warriors’ Draymond Green didn’t take LeBron James’ bait, reacting to his Game 4 stepover in the 2016 Finals and landing the crotch shot that led to his Game 5 suspension and, in the minds of many, the Warriors’ demise?
Green, so stellar during the Warriors’ unprecedented 12-0 postseason run to the Finals this year while keeping a much cooler head, swears the moment doesn’t haunt him.
“I don’t really carry it with me,” he said. “I’m a firm believer in ‘(expletive) happens.’ … I carried the lessons that I learned with me, but the actual incident, it’s — I mean, I put that behind me a long time ago. The things that it taught me is it’s put me in the position of where I am today. I feel better than I’ve ever felt emotionally.
“Just having my emotions (more) in place than I’ve ever felt. So it’s all things that happen bad aren’t that bad, when you take a step back and look at them. It’s something that I learned from and will stick with me for the rest of my life. And not that, not the suspension, like I said, the lessons that the suspension taught me.” DON’T FORGET ABOUT KLAY Shooters shoot, as they say.
They don’t think. They don’t worry. They don’t look back.
But when a shooter such as the Warriors’ Klay Thompson sees his scoring average dip nearly eight points from the regular season to the playoffs (22.3 points per game to 14.4) and his accuracy decline (from 46.8% to 38.3%), it has to mess with even the best of shooter’s minds, right?
“No, sir, not when you’re 12-0 (in the playoffs),” said Thompson, whose three-point shooting has dropped down from 41.4% to 36.4%. “If we were losing, oh yeah. But not when you’re winning. You’ve got to stick to what helps you win. And especially in my mind, it only takes one to get going, so you can’t be worried about the percentages or if you missed shots last game. Just hunt your shot and be aggressive. That’s when I’m most effective.”
With the Cavs having to track elite scoring talents including Curry, Kevin Durant and even Green, Thompson’s play will be key in the series. Cleveland’s defense ranked 22nd during the regular season (108 points allowed per 100 possessions), but it has been greatly improved in the postseason (third among playoff teams at 104.6 points allowed per 100 possessions).
The Cavs, of course, will force the Warriors to be at their best defensively. And no matter how Thompson is playing offensively, he remains a major part of their success on that end because of the Cavs’ perimeter threats.
“I think I’ve been playing (defense) at a good level, but I think I could be better this series,” Thompson said. “I have a great challenge obviously guarding Kyrie Irving, LeBron (James), other players, but those two guys in particular because they’re so good one-on-one. So that’s probably going to be my biggest challenge, and I’m ready for it.”