OAKLAND, Calif. — Warriors enforcer Draymond Green is out, but the bad blood in the NBA Finals may have just begun brewing, particularly between Splash Brother Klay Thompson and LeBron James.
Green’s one-game suspension from Monday’s potential Game 5 clincher at Oracle Arena after his altercation with James drew angry reviews Sunday from the Warriors, especially Thompson, who tweaked The King for being overly sensitive. James appeared bothered by Thompson’s insinuation that “his feelings just got hurt.”
Uncharacteristically, James started yapping at Green toward the end of the Cavs’ Game 4 loss after an incident in which Green took a “retaliatory swipe of his hand to the groin” of James, according to the NBA. The swipe occurred only after James stepped over him. After the game, “The Chosen One” complained that certain stuff shouldn’t be uttered on the hardwood.
Thompson was bewildered.
“Guys talk trash in this league all the time,’’ Thompson said. “I’m just kind of shocked some guys take it so personal. It’s a man’s league, and I’ve heard a lot of bad things on that court, but at the end of the day, it stays on the court.
“I don’t know how the man feels, but obviously people have feelings and people’s feelings get hurt even if they’re called a bad word. I guess his feelings just got hurt. We’ve all been called plenty of bad words on the basketball court before. Some guys just react to it differently.”
When a reporter repeated Thompson’s remark, James laughed and bit his lip, but not without conveying his anger.
“Oh, my goodness,” James said. “I’m not going to comment on what Klay said because I know where it can go from [here]. It’s so hard to take the high road. I’ve been doing it for 13 years. It’s so hard to continue to do it, and I’m going to do it again. At the end of the day, we’ve got to go out and show up and play better [Monday], and if we don’t, then they’re going to be back-to-back champion. But I’ve taken the high road again.”
High road? Stephen Curry’s wife, Ayesha, responded to James’ comment by tweeting: “High Road. invisible bridge used to step over said person when open floor is available left to right.”
Oh yeah, it’s on, even without Green in the house. For its part, the NBA retroactively gave Green a Flagrant Foul 1, putting him over the top with four playoff penalty points and earning him the one-game suspension, banning him from the building.
According to an NBA source, Green will be permitted into the arena if the Warriors win to join the championship celebration. No team ever has recovered from a 3-1 hole in the NBA Finals.
Green found out late in the Warriors’ practice and was not made available to the media. So Thompson did his talking.
“It’s disappointing,” Thompson said of the suspension. “But I’m not going to let it get us down. Draymond, we know it’s going to kill him not being there, but we’re going to go out there and do it as a team and win for him.
“I’m proud of this team because we’ve been so great all year making adjustments, and this is just obviously a big adjustment we’ve got to make. But it’s another challenge for us, and we’re going to embrace it, and we’re going to accomplish it.”
The Warriors sounded downright defiant, even charging the Cavaliers with campaigning to get Green docked.
“We’re all going to carry [a chip],” Shaun Livingston said. “He’s our leader. With him down, it’s a dangerous game. We’re definitely going to be playing with a chip on our shoulder. He’s an invaluable player. We have to do it in numbers. … It’s something we can rally around and play with the same heart he brings.
“I don’t know another person stepping over you on any level, any job,” Livingston added. “On the street, if you see a guy outside sitting down homeless, you’re going to walk around him, not step over him.”
James denied he meant to step right over Green.
“I was just trying to get back into the play,” James said. “I think what had happened was intentional. I knew we got into a grapple at the top of the key, but me just trying to get back into the play.”
In the ongoing coaching chess match Steve Kerr is winning, the Warriors coach likely will start Andre Iguodola in Green’s absence, moving Harrison Barnes to power forward in a small alignment.
“Steve will push the right buttons,” Livingston said.
The absence of Green also could propel Tyronn Lue to reinsert Kevin Love at starting power forward over Richard Jefferson, but Lue wouldn’t say.
“We still have to play,” Lue said. “It doesn’t mean anything because he’s suspended. It doesn’t win us the game. It doesn’t impact our starting lineup.”
Kerr went as far as saying the NBA might want to look into aggregate penalty points, calling it “a strange rule.”