Klay Thompson: Clippers’ Doc Rivers ‘bitter’ over comments about championship

Golden State Warriors’ Klay Thompson took offense to Clippers Coach Doc Rivers saying that Thompson’s team had some luck involved with their championship-winning run last season.

“That sounds pretty bitter to me,” Thompson told reporters Friday.

Rivers had said in a recent interview with Grantland: “You need luck in the West. Look at Golden State. They didn’t have to play us or the Spurs.”

The Clippers, who finished last season tied for second place in the West, played the then-reigning NBA championship Spurs in the first round of the 2015 playoffs, eliminating them with a buzzer-beating shot by Chris Paul in Game 7.

The Clippers then played the Houston Rockets in the second round. They had a 3-1 series lead over the Rockets and were on the verge of reaching the Western Conference finals for the first time in franchise history, but they then lost three games in a row to become just the ninth NBA team in league history to blow a series after having such an advantage.

“Didn’t they lose to the Rockets?” Thompson said. “So that just makes me laugh. That’s funny. Weren’t they up, 3-1, too? Tell them I said that too.”

The Clippers and the Warriors have had a chippy recent history, including the Clippers eliminating the Warriors from the first round of the playoffs in 2014 in a hard-fought series that went seven games.

Thompson, however, was quick to point out that the Warriors had the clear edge over the Clippers last season, beating them in three of their four meetings.

“If we got lucky, look at our record against them last year,” Thompson said. “I’m pretty sure we smacked them.”

Thompson then went on to lament the fact that the Warriors didn’t have the opportunity to play the Clippers in the 2015 postseason.

Said Thompson: “I wanted to play the Clippers last year, but they couldn’t handle their business.”

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