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NBA FINALS: CLEVELAND VS GOLDEN STATEMay 31, 2017Tristan ThompsonOakland, California: Practice Day Q. How does it feel to be back to The Finals? TRISTAN THOMPSON: It feels good. Whenever you have a chance to play in the NBA Finals, it's exciting. We're focused, we're locked in. Q. Does it bring back memories from last year's Finals, or are you more focused on the task at hand? TRISTAN THOMPSON: I haven't even watched Game 7 yet. That whole night is kind of burned in the back of my brain. Now I'm just focused on the task at hand, which is tomorrow night. Q. What do you have to do to win the rebounding battle against the Warriors? TRISTAN THOMPSON: It's going to be a wrestling match down there. But that's The Finals. This is what it's all about. The best two teams are here. So it's going to be a great matchup. Q. How come you haven't watched Game 7? TRISTAN THOMPSON: Too much going on to go get my brain wrapped around it. Even though I know the results, it's too much. Maybe when I'm done playing, I'll go back and watch it. Q. So you've been through this where you guys lost a Finals, you came back, won the next year. I know Golden State having lost last year, they're probably burning to get back here. TRISTAN THOMPSON: Yeah, most definitely. Being on the other side of that, that hunger and that drive, I think our team even now is even more hungry than we were last year. I know we look forward to the challenge. They feel the same. So we have to be ready. We have to be ready to compete and play and leave it all on the floor. Q. Does it help to look at the big picture? This has never been done in the NBA, a trilogy for the championship, and how special is that to be a part of it? TRISTAN THOMPSON: It's definitely special to be a part of, but I think when you're on the battlefield you don't really have time to just sit back and really think about how big it actually is. So for me right now it's just watching film and getting ready to bump and grind tomorrow. I think that in the offseason you can sit back and look back and say, wow, I've definitely been a part of something that nobody has ever done before. Q. Is it possible for the defending champs to be the underdogs? It sounds like a lot of the media is making you guys out to be the underdogs coming into this. TRISTAN THOMPSON: We're the champs. I never know (indiscernible). It is what it is. It makes it good for TV, gets you more hits and views. So I'm good with whatever. However you guys eat, that's fine with me. Q. Forget about that word "rivalry." For you guys on the floor, is it more personal when you're seeing the same dudes across the way at this stage three years in a row? TRISTAN THOMPSON: Whenever you're in the playoffs playing against a team a bunch of times, you start to get annoyed a little bit because you know the other guy and you want to kick his butt and you want to outplay him every possession. It just becomes the competitive nature, with 10 guys on the court fighting and scrapping. They're competitive and we're competitive. Q. One of those guys, Draymond, have you learned a thing or two about the best way to attack him, to handle him? And I wonder, too, do you feel like he's in the same place in terms of he's always been a guy that if you push him enough maybe he'll end up hurting his own team? We saw that happen last year. Is that on your mind as you compete against him? TRISTAN THOMPSON: No. What's on my mind in terms of him is what he does well for his team, which is brings energy, defends, guards a lot of positions and creates for his teammates. So he's a big part of their team and what he's done for them. He's their motor. He gets them going. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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