David J. Phillip/Associated Press
The Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers will meet for a fourth straight NBA Finals starting with Game 1 on Thursday night at Oracle Arena, and Klay Thompson isn't about to apologize for the league's lack of parity at the top.
"The rest of the NBA has to get better," he said Wednesday, per Daniel Brown of the San Jose Mercury News. "It's not our fault."
There's an argument to be made that the Warriors and Cavaliers have three of the five best players in the NBA (LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry) and five or six of the league's best 25 players (throw Thompson and Draymond Green into that mix and possibly Kevin Love).
Neither team should apologize for that fact, of course. But it also isn't shocking that the team with the best player on the planet in James is once again facing the squad with four recent All-Stars and two former NBA MVPs in Durant (2013-14) and Curry (2014-15, 2015-16).
Thus far, the Warriors have gotten the better of the Cavs, winning two of the past three matchups. And this version of the Cavaliers is arguably the worst one to reach the Finals, with Kyrie Irving now in Boston.
It's taken a heroic campaign and a herculean postseason from James to lead his team to this point. He appeared in all 82 regular-season games at the age of 33, playing 36.9 minutes per contest, and has averaged 34.0 points, 9.2 rebounds and 8.8 assists in 41.3 minutes per game in the playoffs.
The Warriors, meanwhile, have the talent and system in place to either roll teams or make leads disappear with startling efficiency, as Thompson has noted:
The Cavaliers are much bigger long shots than they've been in the past, with the Warriors favored by the largest point spread since 2001, according to ESPN Stats & Info. But if Golden State sweeps them, well, don't expect Thompson and his teammates to apologize for that either.