I Can't Even Hate Klay Thompson For Laying Into Doc Rivers And The Clippers

Doc Rivers- “You need luck in the West. Look at Golden State. They didn’t have to play us or the Spurs. But that’s also a lesson for us: When you have a chance to close, you have to do it.”

Klay: "I wanted to play the Clippers last year, but they couldn't handle their business"

— Ethan Strauss (@SherwoodStrauss) October 9, 2015

Klay on Doc Rivers: "If we got lucky, look at our record against them last year. I'm pretty sure we smacked them."

— Ethan Strauss (@SherwoodStrauss) October 9, 2015

Klay on Clips: “Didn’t they lose to the Rockets? So, that just makes me laugh. That’s funny. Weren’t they up 3-1 too? Tell em I said that"

— Ethan Strauss (@SherwoodStrauss) October 9, 2015

Hey Clippers fans, be mad at Klay Thompson if you want, but just realize that you are only upset because he is completely right. That's not to say that Doc Rivers is wrong. The Warriors were lucky to avoid the Spurs and the Clippers. However, the Clippers were the team that handed them that winning lottery ticket. You can't say that a team is fortunate that they didn't have to play you when you granted them that fortune. Of course the Clippers would have been a better opponent than the Rockets, but when the Clippers had a chance to prove just that they peed directly down their own leg. Now, "smacked" might be an exaggeration, but the Warriors did go 3-1 against the Clippers last year. There is no evidence to support that the Clippers would have provided better competition than the Houston Rockets.

Should the Warriors have been afraid of the team that defeated the San Antonio Spurs in a hard-fought seven game series? Quite possibly, but by the time the conference semifinals were over that team was but a distant memory. The Clippers team that was up 3-1 on the Rockets was potentially the best basketball team in the NBA. The Warriors were lucky to avoid that team. The Clippers team that epically collapsed in losing 3 straight games was barely a playoff team. The Warriors would have been blessed to play that team. Who is to say which one of those drastically different teams would have shown up if the Clippers did somehow advance to the Western Conference Finals? I can promise you that if it was the one the blew a 20 point lead to Houston while their MVP candidate was sitting on the bench than the series would have been over in four games. I love Doc Rivers, and I understand what he is trying to say, but don't expect it to fall on deaf ears when you try to belittle your rival's accomplishments. Especially after you coached the team that failed so miserably to keep them from their accomplishments. Klay may be outspoken, but there's only one way to shut him up, and it's done with actions on the basketball court, not words away from it.