It’s no secret that the Los Angeles Clippers and Golden State Warriors have a strong dislike for each other. It has been that way since last season when the Warriors became a relevant team in the Western Conference, and it continued into this season when Blake Griffin called the Warriors cowards. The two teams won’t even share a chapel together.
That’s true hate.
What no one could have seen coming, though, is Klay Thompson joining in on the fun, so to speak. During a radio interview, the sharp-shooter called out Griffin for his “out of control” style of play, transcribed by Arash Markazi of ESPN LA:
On Wednesday, Warriors guard Klay Thompson called Clippers forward Blake Griffin out for flopping and playing “kind of out of control sometimes.”
“He is a good guy off the court but he probably just … I mean … plays pretty physical and flops a little bit,” Thompson told The Wheelhouse on 95.7 The Game radio in San Francisco.
“He flairs his arm around so you know you might catch a random elbow or something that doesn’t you know rub off too well on guys,” Thompson said. “He’s kind of like a bull in a china shop, kind of out of control sometimes. And then you do just see him flop sometimes like how can a guy that big and strong flop that much.
“I can see how that gets under people’s skin and be frustrating to play against.”
This should add plenty of fuel to the fire as the two teams prepare to face each other in the first round of the playoffs.
While we’re on the subject of Griffin, here’s a piece by Chris Palmer of SlamONLINE about the amount of physical punishment the power forward takes and the praise he gets from his team for the way he handles it:
Of course there was the nationally televised Christmas Day game that ended with the Clippers forward being ejected after which he called the Warriors “cowards.”
After that March 10 Suns game Rivers paused, collected his thoughts, careful not to cross a line that could end up with a call from the League office or at least a nasty bout of regret.
“Blake gets hit as much as anybody in the League and it gets old,” said Rivers. “I’m not going to say what I really want to say. I just think he’s playing really well right now and some people don’t like that.”
[…]
Whether it’s the bruising style of play or frustrated opponents with envious eyes, those skirmishes are an everyday part of BG’s world. Through discipline and self-control, he’s managed to bottle his reactionary rage and turn the other freckled cheek.
“He’s doing the right thing,” Rivers says. “If he reacts like people say he should he gets thrown out and it hurts the team.”
His running mate Chris Paul concurs. “He could easily punch back and get to fighting,” says Paul. “But no. I don’t know how he does it. That’s pretty selfless.”
Meanwhile, Thompson has been getting plenty of praise from around the league, but from no one more so than Mark Jackson (which is no surprise). Rusty Simmons of San Francisco Chronicle has details:
“I know that, all of a sudden, this maybe could perhaps be the greatest shooting backcourt in history and, all of a sudden, Steph Curry is a superstar,” Jackson said, pointing to a couple of his past seemingly outlandish claims that are being accepted a year later. “I think the next thing people will realize is just how good Klay Thompson is on both sides of the basketball. … He’s a big-time talent. It’s scary when you think about how good he can be.”
Having his coach call him among the best in the game certainly increases the attention. Of course, Thompson is unfazed.
“I love it,” Thompson said. “It’s high praise. It’s great to hear that from your coach. It gives me a lot of confidence, it makes me want to work hard for him out there, and it’s humbling. I’ve been working hard these past three years, and hopefully, I’ve still got a lot of room to grow.
“You’ve got to have confidence in yourself. I have the ability to guard 1 through 3 and sometimes 4. … I believe it. I think I’m up there.”
“He’s a guy who shows up, a guy who competes at a high level, a guy who’s not afraid of the moment,” Jackson said. “He could care less whether he just made his last shot or just missed his last 10. The guy could care less. Score, time, situation, if he gets a look, he’s going to shoot it.”
Thompson will have the opportunity to show how much of a two-way player he is in the first round, when he will likely have to play the role of secondary scorer next to Stephen Curry, while likely having to guard Chris Paul more often times than not.
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