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."
The part that sticks out: according to Thompson, the Warriors still feel they're the best team in the world. After making history and coming so close to winning back-to-back championships, can you blame them?
The old cliche is that, in a seven-game series, the best team always wins. There are players, though, who flatly reject this notion, and their logic is not wrong. Sometimes an injury, a foul call or a lucky shot can tilt a game. One game can swing a series. In close games between elite teams, luck plays a huge role. Game 7 certainly fits that description.
With two minutes left, before LeBron James' incredible block, the Cavs and Warriors had scored the same amount of points in Game 7 and in the series as a whole. One team had to experience pure joy, and the other had to have their hearts broken. Under these circumstances, the latter one was always going to feel like things should have ended differently.
Confidence defined Golden State's season -- last than two weeks in, both Thompson and Stephen Curry discussed the possibility of winning 70 games -- and it is a huge part of what enabled this team to accomplish as much as it did. Since the Warriors fell short of their ultimate goal, though, some will wonder whether it also contributed to their downfall.
After they went up 3-1 in the conference finals, did they expect that closing out Cleveland was inevitable? When they approached Game 7, were they too loose? Only those inside the locker room truly know the answers to those questions, but one thing is for certain: Thompson and his teammates want you to know that their pride isn't going anywhere.
