Klay Thompson Says The Warriors’ Christmas Loss Was A Gift To The Cavs

When the Warriors and Cavs squared off as the featured showcase of the NBA’s Christmas Day extravaganza, they reminded us why it might be the best rivalry in professional sports. LeBron James and Kevin Durant were both at the peak of their powers, and as it should be, the game came down to a last-second shot…once again from Kyrie Irving.

But the game wasn’t always that close. On the contrary, the Warriors held a 14-point lead early in the fourth quarter until the Cavs came storming back thanks to brilliant all-around play from James and Irving. Golden State also deserves responsibility for blowing what (yet again) appeared to be a sure thing.

Klay Thompson gets that, and he didn’t pull any punches when speaking to reporters after the game.

“We’re mad, man,” Thompson said. “The way we lost that game, we gave them a gift. I mean, we’re shooting ourselves in the foot, you know? We’re up 13 in the fourth quarter, and we just have to be solid and not turn the ball over, help each other on defense to win the game, and instead we’re throwing the ball over the court, leaving open shooters and just not playing our brand of ball, so you better be mad. I don’t care if it’s Christmas Day or any game you lose, any time you blow a 13-point lead, it’ll piss you off.”

Thompson’s reaction to the loss was much different from his teammate Kevin Durant, who instead chose to claim that he was fouled on the final possession before he could get a potential game-winning shot off. Yes, it’s only one regular season game that has little bearing on how things will play out next spring (recall that the Warriors destroyed the Cavs on Christmas last year), but the stakes are always high in this rivalry, and the Warriors’ fourth-quarter meltdown is going to do anything to slow the tsunami of memes about how the Warriors like t blow big leads.

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