If you called Isaiah Thomas’ bluff Sunday night, well, you were right.
After dropping 20 points, nine assists and five rebounds off the bench in the Los Angeles Lakers’ win over the Cleveland Cavaliers, Thomas insisted he wasn’t out for blood against his former team: “I only played 15 games with the Cavs, so it wasn’t like it was a revenge game.”
Lakers rookie Kyle Kuzma remembers things a bit differently, though.
“He was barking at Cleveland’s bench the whole time, every time he scored,” Kuzma said Monday, via Slam Online.
” … He was only there for 15 games, but it was good to see him try to kill them. We have a saying: Your last team, they didn’t want you. He took it to them, and he did a great job.”
So, yeah. It was a revenge game for Thomas.
Kuzma added another interesting tidbit about his new teammate, who joined L.A. on Feb. 8 via trade from Cleveland.
“He yells at me a lot,” Kuzma said of Thomas.
Boston Celtics fans will recognize Thomas’ trademark fire, which occasionally rubs teammates the wrong way. But the 22-year-old Kuzma insisted Thomas’ occasional brashness is good for the young Lakers.
“I’m a competitive person and he’s really competitive,” Kuzma added. “We both want to win. It’s always a good and a bad thing to get animated like that because, one, it keeps you on your heels more. It just helps you come together more.”
L.A. is 7-2 in its last nine games, so whatever Thomas is doing appears to be working.
