With the Cleveland Cavaliers ahead by more than 20 points against the Toronto Raptors in Wednesday night’s game and only several seconds remaining in the contest, Cavaliers big man Tristan Thompson dribbled his way to the rim for a slam dunk, and neither the Raptors’ players nor their head coach appreciated that decision.
Shortly after Thompson scored the game’s final basket, Raptors rookie floor general Jamal Shead got into a tense exchange with the 33-year-old, and the two had to be separated. Raptors star Scottie Barnes seemingly had some words for Thompson as well.
Tristan Thompson going at it 😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/0R9o1Q5apm
— ¹⁰ (@HoodiGarland) February 13, 2025
Toronto head coach Darko Rajakovic used the word “disrespectful” to describe Thompson’s decision to throw it down with the final outcome of the bout already decided.
“I think what Tristan did there was no class and disrespectful,” Rajakovic said. “I’m not going to stand for that, for sure. I love when my team stands up for themselves. That was no class.”
Shead touched on his heated conversation with the former University of Texas at Austin standout but said that he’s not going to dwell on the incident.
“What he did at the end of the game was just a little bit disrespectful to the game of basketball, not just us,” Shead said. “We had a couple of choice words. We’re adults, we’ll move on from it.”
Moreover, Raptors forward RJ Barrett defended Shead’s upset reaction to Thompson breaking an unwritten rule in the NBA.
“It’s kind of an unwritten rule to not do that at the end,” Barrett said. “Jamal did what he’s supposed to.”
On Thursday, Thompson took to X and responded to Rajakovic’s comments by claiming that the Raptors only have themselves to blame for the fact that he scored the ball with time running down in the game.
“You wanna full court press with under a minute left in the game when you get cracked by 30 this will happen to you,” Thompson’s post on X post read. “Lose for draft lottery and be happy buddy boy. Hopefully you and most of your guys see the light at the end of Bobby and Masai long term plan. Bless up stay warm in MY CITY.”
Thompson played less than four minutes in Cleveland’s decisive victory over the Raptors and totaled four points while shooting 2-of-4 from the floor. Wednesday marked the first time that he put points on the board since he scored two points in a win over the Miami Heat on Jan. 29.
He is in his second stint playing for the Cavaliers after he spent his first nine seasons in the league with Cleveland. The team drafted him with the No. 4 overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft.
Thompson is hoping that he will win his second NBA championship as a Cavalier later this year. Cleveland seemingly has a real shot to be the last team standing in June, as its record of 44-10 is the best in the Eastern Conference and the second-best out of the 30 teams in the league.
