Tristan Thompson for some reason punctuated the Cleveland Cavaliers' blowout victory over the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday night with an uncontested dunk in the final seconds to move the winning margin from 21 points to 23 points. The shot clock was off and players were just milling around the court so it was an unusual move bound to tick off the guardians of all rules unwritten. Which is exactly what happened as Scottie Barnes and Jamal Shead let Thompson know that they didn't much appreciate the stat-padding.
Nothing of real consequence happened during the confrontation outside of adding some spice to a lopsided game. There's probably not a lot to say outside of 'hey man, don't do that' or 'I'll do that if I want to' and then there's a stalemate in the marketplace of ideas.
Tristan Thompson wins it for the Cavs pic.twitter.com/Ve88Gitvie
— Dylan🔮🪼 (@dillybar2145__) February 13, 2025
Thompson did manage to turn himself into a target, though, and he was hit with a devastating "not classy" during media availability.
"I think what Tristan did there was no class and disrespectful," Raptors coach Darko Rajakovic said postgame. "I'm not going to stand for that, for sure. I love when my team stands up for themselves. That was no class."
Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson stayed pretty neutral himself.
"I'm not sure what he was thinking," Atkinson said. "Sometimes, though, you're playing the game, and you just have a reaction. I know with Tristan, there's no bad intention there. I think just sometimes you're playing, and the goal of the game is to score. Unfortunate."
In a way this is all oddly comforting. Time passes and basketball teams still can't agree on the proper way to evaporate the final seconds off a clock without drama. At this point it's fair to think they'll never figure it out and these tiffs will continue to pop off as long as they're keeping score.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Tristan Thompson Accused of Having 'No Class' After Garbage Time Dunk.
