Golden State Warriors star Klay Thompson reflects on last season’s second-round playoff loss to the Los Angeles Lakers and LeBron James.
The Golden State Warriors are the sixth seed in the Western Conference, but after defeating the Sacramento Kings in the first round, the team has lost six straight games against the Lakers.
Los Angeles was the seventh seed in the Western Conference last season, but the team eliminated the Memphis Grizzlies and Warriors in the first two rounds of the playoffs and eventually reached the Western Conference Finals.
“It stung so much,” Thompson told The Athletic of the loss to the Lakers. “Bad. Because you want to win against the team in the division, you want to beat your hometown, you want to beat your team fan friends, and you obviously want to beat LeBron. We have a deep history with him. Hats off to him. . He’s still here playing at the highest level he can. So, yeah, it stings. Any time you don’t hit your target, that’s motivation, and we had a lot of times. That’s fuel. It’s on your mind all summer long. That question. How could you be better prepared?”
The Warriors have played against James many times, and Thompson and the team reached four consecutive NBA Finals while playing for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Golden State won three of those four games, but James led Cleveland to an improbable comeback in the 2016 NBA Finals, erasing a 3-1 series deficit to win the series in seven games .
Thompson and the Warriors won the NBA Finals in 2021-22, Thompson’s first season back since tearing his ACL in the 2019 NBA Finals.
The Warriors star suffered two consecutive serious injuries before the 2020-21 season, rupturing his Achilles tendon, causing him to miss the entire season and part of the 2021-22 season. Still, he returned and played at a high level, helping the Golden State Warriors defeat the Boston Celtics in the 2022 NBA Finals to win the championship.
Thompson revealed that he was tired during the series against the Lakers, which led to his poor performance.
“I knew I was bombed,” Thompson said. “I was tired. All my shots in Game 6 were short. They were all on the line. They were just short. Don’t know if it was mental fatigue or physical fatigue. But it happens. The most important thing is that with age As I grew, I learned that I had to rely on my teammates and my smarts to score as efficiently as possible.”
In the series against Los Angeles, Thompson averaged 16.2 points per game but shot only 34.3% from the field.
Thompson’s three-point shooting remained solid against the Lakers — 38.1% from three — but despite averaging 16.5 attempts per game, he averaged just 5.7 attempts per game in the series.
It sounds like Thompson hopes to make up for a poor performance against the Lakers and help the Golden State Warriors compete for a championship in the 2023-24 season. The team is likely to face the Lakers again in the playoffs to enter this season’s NBA Finals.