Tuesday night saw the last two teams that represented the Western Conference in the NBA Finals face off and at least for the first half, we witnessed an incredible game of basketball. The Suns and the Warriors battled it out in Phoenix but a flashpoint moment in the 3rd quarter seemingly ended the game as a contest.
With the Suns leading 83-77, tensions boiled over between Devin Booker and Klay Thompson as they got into an argument on the court, which led to both men being issued technicals. Klay kept going though and he directed his frustrations toward the officials, which led to another technical and an ejection. It was the first time in his career that Klay got ejected and the Warriors crumbled after the incident, as the Suns went on to win 134-105.
Devin Booker Reveals What Klay Thompson Repeatedly Told Him During Their Altercation
Thompson yelled and gestured at the opposing bench as he walked off the court as tensions ran high. Booker’s trash talk combined with Klay’s own poor showing, 2 points on 1-8 shooting, might have had something to do with Thompson completely losing his cool there. After the game, Booker revealed what Klay was telling him during their altercation.
(starts at 1:32 mark):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqBoYJ7psOk
“They have four rings. Repeated it over and over and they do.”
It was the classic line that Shaquille O’Neal loves to use against Charles Barkley on Inside the NBA! Klay and the Warriors have all the bragging rights after they won it all last year while the Suns imploded in the Conference Semifinals. That doesn’t take away from the fact though that Booker had owned Thompson and the Warriors in this game. He finished with a game-high 34 points but while the two went at each other, Booker said after the game that he loves Klay.
(starts at 0:56 mark):
“I love Klay Thompson and I have from the beginning, from the draft. Coming out I said I want to be Klay Thompson. But that doesn’t excuse us from competing against each other and talking a little mess with each other. So I had fun with it, big fan of his and his competitive nature and that’s that.”
It was just some old-fashioned trash talk from both sides and you would wish the officials wouldn’t have ejected Thompson for it. There were no punches thrown or anything like that and it just ruined what was a great game of basketball.
Still, the ejection doesn’t excuse the Warriors from collapsing in that game the way they did. Fans are a bit worried about the team after this loss and the Warriors haven’t really had a great start to the season. They followed up a win over the Lakers in the opener by losing to the Nuggets and then had the Kings almost erase a 26-point deficit against them, which Curry wanted to be a lesson to the youngsters on the team that it is hard to win in the NBA.
