Richard Jefferson puts Klay Thompson on blast

The Cleveland Cavaliers fired back on the court in Game 5 of the NBA Finals, defeating the Golden State Warriors to fend off elimination.

It now appears a more confident Cavaliers team is ready to do the same off the court.

Cavaliers forward Richard Jefferson fired back at Warriors All-Star Klay Thompson on Tuesday after the latter had thrown some criticism LeBron James’ way prior to Game 5.

“If it’s a man’s game, shut up about the (illegal screen),” Jefferson told Yahoo’s The Vertical. “Or don’t say anything about LeBron. Klay, he’s like my little brother. But we can’t contradict ourselves.”

All this stems from Thompson’s comments following a Game 4 altercation between Draymond Green and James.

Green, who was suspended for Monday’s game for another Flagrant foul, apparently called James some bad names, at which point the Cavaliers forward took exception following the game.

“Draymond just said something that I don’t agree with. I’m all cool with the competition. I’m all fine with that, but some of the words that came out of his mouth were a little bit overboard,” James said, via ESPN. “Being a guy with pride, a guy with three kids and a family, things of that nature, some things just go overboard, and that’s where he took it, and that was it.”

Thompson’s comments immediately proceeding this situation raised some red flags. The sharpshooter had said that James “feelings just got hurt,” adding that it was “man’s game.” You can read more on that here.

This came after Thompson himself complained about an illegal screen reserve Cavaliers center Timofey Mozgov laid in him in Game 3.

As these two teams prepare to do battle in Game 6 on Thursday, it’s becoming increasingly evident that there’s some bad blood between them. Jefferson calling out his former teammate is a prime example of this.

Get your popcorn ready, the remainder of the series should be a blast.