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NBA FINALS: CAVALIERS vs WARRIORS


June 1, 2018


Klay Thompson


Oakland, California: Practice Day

Q. Just wondering how your injury is a day afterward.
KLAY THOMPSON: Yeah, it's sore, but it's nothing too bad. It's less sore than it was last night, so that's a great sign. I expect it to heal up even more by tonight hopefully.

Q. You've been pretty healthy throughout your career. But how have you dealt with (indiscernible) injuries this year?
KLAY THOMPSON: I've been very blessed to not have any catastrophic injuries in my whole basketball career. I've had some knickknacks as far as sprained ankles, fractured thumbs, but nothing that was too detrimental to my future. So for me, I think I've had a high pain tolerance since I've been a kid. At this point of the year, everyone is going to be a little banged up, so you have to play through it. You can be sore going into the summertime. That's how I look at it.

Q. You were on the court for the Tristan Thompson play. We don't know what his outlook may be for the next game. What do you think could happen for him going into Game 2?
KLAY THOMPSON: I don't know. I know he got a technical. I don't know what the exact rules are as far as a suspension for that. I thought it was unnecessary when he shoved the ball in Draymond's face. That was very uncalled for, especially if two guys are just talking. That's not the way to play.

But honestly, I don't care if he plays or not. I mean, he's great on the O-boards. He always causes us a problem with that. But we're concerned with how our game plan is going to be executed and what we have to do to limit that from the offensive glass. I'm not too concerned if Thompson is available or not, to be honest.

Q. You mentioned never having a severe injury in your career. Was there a fear when you went down last night and you were going back to the locker room that this thing could be pretty severe?
KLAY THOMPSON: No, because I felt it in my ankle. So I thought I just rolled it tough. Nothing in my knees or my legs. It was just a high ankle, and it trickled down lower as the night went on. I knew it would be sore. I've done that injury plenty of times, but luckily we have a couple days between games so I'll be able to get right.

Q. You mentioned the emotions surrounding Tristan Thompson's reaction. Can you just describe the level of emotion between these two teams after meeting each other for four years? I know they have a lot of new guys, but how will those emotions affect the series going forward?
KLAY THOMPSON: I think if we play with great passion and great focus, I think we'll be fine. You can't let your emotion get the best of you as far as giving away points, as far as giving away possessions, getting deflated. Those are the three things we can't let happen. Giving away technical fouls, bad turnovers just from not thinking the game.

For us, if we play with great emotion, that's when we're at our best. It's just how we hold our emotions in check is how effective we will be.

Q. In that sense, is there any possibility that the Cavaliers would be deflated by the way they lost, especially if you were to jump on them in Game 2?
KLAY THOMPSON: I don't expect them to still be deflated by Sunday. I know their goal is to come to Oracle and just get one (game). So we have to have it in the back of our minds that we want to protect home court. And if we don't take care of business Sunday, we obviously lose that advantage. Game 1 is over with. I do not expect them to still be deflated. I expect them to play with great energy out of the gate on Sunday.

Q. You're talking about playing through the injuries, how did you develop that over time?
KLAY THOMPSON: Obviously, the stakes on the line right now are huge, so that helps. If this was Game 32 of the regular season, I would not have played last night. Just because it's a long, long grind to get to where we want to be. But since we only need four wins to hoist that trophy, the pain tolerance will go up.

It's something that I developed probably as a kid, being able to have brothers and get beat up on the driveway. Playing football all my life, that helped as well. You never really know what it's like to be hurt until you play the sport of football. Then you can argue you get hurt every play. I developed that as a child and just want to continue.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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