Klay Thompson Poured a Barrel of Gasoline on Warriors-Clippers Rivalry

The Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Clippers have the fiercest rivalry going in the NBA. It officially began back in 2013 when the Warriors’ bench ribbed on Blake Griffin hard for air-balling two shots in two separate games that season, but on Halloween of the 2013-2014 season, the feud began to get serious.

Andrew Bogut fouled DeAndre Jordan hard to send him to the free-throw line and Jordan took exception, shoving Bogut. Bogut responded with a shove of his own which caused other players and officials to get involved.

The next matchup was on Christmas Day and that game featured Draymond Green getting ejected in the third quarter for elbowing Griffin. Griffin would later get ejected in the fourth quarter and Chris Paul and Bogut would start a fight after the game that involved players from both teams.

The two teams then met in the 2014 NBA Playoffs, which happened to be the same series where the whole Donald Sterling situation occurred and emotions were flying high. The Clippers ended up winning Game 7 which triggered the firing of Mark Jackson, and the eventual hiring of Steve Kerr. I guess you could say the Clippers helped the Warriors win the NBA title last season. Please don’t say that to a Clippers fan as I can’t guarantee how they’ll react.

Now that I’ve given you some background into this rivalry, let’s flash-forward to the present day. Clippers head coach Doc Rivers made a statement earlier in the week that the Warriors needed “luck” to avoid the Clippers and San Antonio Spurs in their quest for the NBA championship. Rivers had to know that his comments would ruffle a few feathers, and boy did they.

Warriors guard Klay Thompson wasn’t going to sit back and take that subtle jab by the Clippers’ head coach:

If we got lucky, look at our record against them last year. I’m pretty sure we smacked them. Didn’t they lose to the Rockets? Exactly. So haha. That just makes me laugh. That’s funny. Weren’t they up 3-1 too? Yeah, tell them I said that. That’s funny. That’s funny.

Thompson was also quoted as saying, “I wanted to play the Clippers last year, but they couldn’t handle their business.”

These two teams face each other in the preseason on October 20, and in the regular season on November 4. If you haven’t figured out where you’re watching these games from, you better call some buddies because there are going to be fireworks.

Jason Fletcher is a Senior Writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @JasonFletcher25, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google+.