CLEVELAND — Tristan Thompson soaked his feet in an ice tub in an overheated locker room minutes after the Cavaliers took a 2-1 lead in the NBA Finals with a 96-91 victory Tuesday.
It’s one of the rare breaks afforded the 6-foot-9 power forward. Through three games in six days against the Warriors, Thompson logged a few seconds short of 131 minutes on the court. LeBron James is the only Cleveland player with more mileage so far, and Thompson fielded the same question James took a handful of times at the pregame shoot-around: Is this sustainable?
“I feel good,” Thompson said. “I’m 24, so there’s no excuse to be tired. I’m doing a lot of treatment. You’ve got to give our strength and conditioning staff a lot of credit.”
Thompson lauded the power of massages, cold tubs and cryo chambers before fielding a series of questions about the two most popular people in Cleveland. How did James nearly put up another triple-double? How did Matthew Dellavedova make that off-balance shot?
Here’s a better question: What about Thompson’s impact? His role has been understated in its importance to how the Cavs lead this series. Thompson, tasked with replacing injured Kevin Love in the starting lineup midway through the first round, totaled 10 points and 13 rebounds in Game 3 and has averaged 14 rebounds per game in the Finals.
Thompson scored only two points in each of the first two games, but Cleveland coach David Blatt didn’t seem concerned before Game 3.
“There’s nothing specific I have to tell Tristan because he’s a game animal,” Blatt said. “He gets his stuff without necessarily being a target player.”
That's part of what makes Thompson so important and intriguing for the Cavaliers moving forward. He is a restricted free agent this offseason and shares the same agent, Rich Paul, with James. The Cavaliers' foremost star has said he wants Thompson to stay with the team for the long haul, but performances like these only increase his value in free agency as a part of an already highly-paid roster.
He has been essential, though, especially in these Finals. Thompson posted six points and seven rebounds in the first quarter alone as Cleveland took control early again.
“I wish I had an answer for you,” Golden State forward Draymond Green said of the Warriors' slow starts. “But it’s something that we have to figure out.”
One possible answer: Green needs to match fellow restricted free agent Thompson, who holds a 42-23 head-to-head advantage on the glass in the series. The Warriors’ frustration down low with Thompson and Timofey Mozgov continues to mount with each foul in the paint. Golden State even turned to David Lee in the second half for a spark.
Thompson’s impact doesn’t stop there. He continues to draw more than a few assignments on Stephen Curry in pick-and-roll switches.
“Obviously I’m not going to go in here and say I’ll be able to stop (Curry),” Thompson said. “My job is just to make him take tough shots, use my length and watch film and see which areas and at moves he likes to do.”
Thompson says that goes for Curry, Green and Klay Thompson. The goal right now is to, he said, “take them out of their comfort zone and make them uncomfortable.”
It’s working, but a late surge by Golden State nearly erased a 20-point third-quarter before Dellavedova’s clutch shot. That’s a reminder that the Warriors can find that comfort zone in a hurry, and the Cavs might need more of the same unheralded defense-and-rebounding from Thompson. It might take at least another 131 minutes to get there.
Is that sustainable?
“There is no basketball after this, so you’ve got to give everything that’s left in the tank,” Thompson said. “You can rest when it’s all said and done.”
