The coach of the Golden State Warriors is someone who famously got into a fistfight with Michael Jordan as a player, and got into a fistfight with a clipboard earlier in these playoffs. He stuck his knee out too, but, you know what?
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“If it’s on the perimeter, I understand”, Thompson said. And the Warriors insist they’ll play differently on Friday night, when they visit the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 4 of The Finals. But really, the Warriors looked defeated by the end of the first quarter anyway, so this is probably just frustration Thompson had building over the final three quarters.
To put it another way, Mozgov’s screen and Thompson’s reaction are examples of the kind of bad blood that can develop during a long series with massive stakes for all involved parties. Thompson landed with a thud, clutching his left thigh, which slammed into Mozgov’s knee on the play. But Cleveland coach Tyronn Lue said he saw the play differently.
“Sometimes you’ve got to hit a bunch of singles to get runs in”, Iguodala said Thursday after practice.
At his news conference, Thompson did stick to his assertion that Mozgov’s screen was at least unusual.
“But, usually, when someone sets a screen, you usually do it with your chest or something”.
“The only way to respond to that is to beat them”, Thompson’s father said. “I’m not going to hold a grudge. So we’ve seen some of the situations, but this is kind of the height of the National Basketball Association and this is where you want to be”.
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Thompson’s father, former National Basketball Association center Mychal Thompson, stuck to his son’s original viewpoint. “That’s the only thing you can do”. “We’ve already got to take a flight home anyways, so we might as well come home with a win and play on our home floor again”.
