Losing Game 7 of the NBA Finals to the Cleveland Cavaliers has not bilked the Golden State Warriors of their confidence.
Or rather, it hasn’t stamped out Klay Thompson’s confidence.
From CBS Sports’ James Herbert:
Golden State Warriors guard Klay Thompson started his end-of-season media session on Monday by saying that he barely slept the night before and feels pretty much the same as he did when the buzzer sounded and the Cleveland Cavaliers won the NBA championship. Thompson is proud of the way the Warriors approached the season, winning an NBA record 73 games, but he was at a loss when asked how he would get beyond the disappointment of Game 7 and get his mind ready for next season.
“It’s hard for me to answer right now,” Thompson said. “I really don’t have a good answer for that right now, to be honest. It was very disappointing just because we know how good we are, we feel like we’re still the best team in the world and we let that slide. So it hurts right now. I can’t tell you when the disappointment’s gonna fade, but it will.”
It’s fair to agree with Thompson. The Warriors are still the best team in the world. They’re one of the best teams ever. They just couldn’t close. And that happens. Not always in this demonstrative fashion, by blowing a 3-1 series lead, but it happens.
It took a perfect storm of events and mistakes for the Warriors to get here, in the losers circle, lamenting what could have been. That matters.
What if Draymond Green never dings LeBron James in the groin at the end of Game 4, thereby ensuring he wouldn’t be suspended for Game 5? What if Andrew Bogut never injures his knee? What if Andre Iguodala never hurts his back?
What if Stephen Curry clearly isn’t dealing with a vast array of injuries through the entire playoffs?
This doesn’t take anything away from the Cavaliers. LeBron James and crew earned their championship. But that doesn’t mean the outcome wasn’t an upset. The Warriors were supposed to win. They should have won. They are, overall, the better team.
Cleveland just had the better series.
