OAKLAND, Calif. — There’s an unwritten rule, Tristan Thompson said. And the Warriors’ Shaun Livingston broke the rule.
Livingston shot with 2.6 seconds left and his team leading by eight points in overtime of the Warriors’ 124-114 victory in Game 1 Thursday night. So the Cavaliers’ Thompson gave an elbow.
“I contested a shot that shouldn’t have been taken,” Thompson said. “I mean, it’s like the unspoken rule in the NBA: If you’re up by 10 or 11 with about 20 seconds left, you don’t take that shot. I made the contest and next thing I know I was being kicked out for making a contest that we learn in training camp. I don’t know why I got thrown out.”
Well, it looked like there was an elbow.
“From the angle I had on the floor, as [Thompson] is coming toward Livingston, his elbow is up high and it appears he hits him in the head when he is coming toward him,” official Tony Brothers said through a pool reporter. “So that’s why I called the foul and ejected him.”
Thompson then got into it with Draymond Green and pushed the basketball in the face of the Warriors’ forward.
“Just walking. I didn’t hear him, but I heard him, and the rest is history,” Thompson said.
“It wasn’t really a verbal altercation,” Green said. “It wasn’t much verbal. So, yeah, nothing. I really don’t know what you want from me. It is what it is. Life goes on. He got a flagrant 2 for the foul, we move forward and get ready for the next game. It is what it is.”
The Warriors dodged a major bullet when Klay Thompson limped off the court in the first quarter after J.R. Smith rolled into his leg.
“I’m sore, but who isn’t sore at this point in the year,” said Thompson, who returned later in the first. “I’ll be fine in a couple of days. I just need to get some rest and some rehabilitation and I’ll be good.
“I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt. I think he was going for the ball. I don’t think it was intentional.”
Kevin Love was back for the Cavs for Game 1 after completing the NBA’s Concussion Return to Play Program and finished with 21 points and 13 rebounds. Love banged heads with Boston’s Jayson Tatum in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals and was forced to sit out Cleveland’s decisive Game 7 victory.
On Wednesday, during the media availability session, from which Love was excused, the general feeling was that Love would play.
“It didn’t surprise me. I’m glad he’s playing,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “We want everybody playing. We want everybody healthy and out there competing so I’m happy for him.”
Kerr is dealing with his own significant injury loss — Andre Iguodala, who was sidelined for Game 1 with a leg bruise, but hopes to be ready for Game 2 Sunday.
“Just the usual stuff,” Kerr said when asked what Iguodala would do before Game 2. “The training staff will put him through any court work and any kind of assessment and then they’ll tell us if he’s ready or not.”
Iguodala, the 2015 Finals MVP, is a tough defender who usually is thrown on LeBron James. Most folks would prefer being thrown on a live grenade.
“He has very, very quick hands. That doesn’t get talked about a lot,” James said of Iguodala, explaining his defensive grit. “His ability to react to the ball either in the flight or while you’re dribbling or while you pick the ball up. But at the end of the day, his athleticism allows him to play some of the premier perimeter players in our league. He’s a guy that’s 6-8, long wingspan, athletic. He’s been like that since he was at Arizona. He’s just added to his game every single season he’s been in the NBA. I’ve played against him throughout my career, throughout his entire career since he got to the league.”
James admitted he wished the Cavs would have drafted Iguodala back in 2004.
“A funny story, when he got drafted, we were one pick away from drafting him before Philly took him [with the ninth pick],” James said. “Then we selected Luke Jackson from Oregon. I had loved him at Arizona and was hoping that he slid to us with that pick. You guys [media] like those stories, so that’s why I gave it to you.”
