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Klay Thompson: 'We would've won if I didn't get hurt'

Golden State Warriors guard Klay Thompson.
Klay Thompson believes the Warriors would have won Game 7 if he was on the court. (AP Photo/Tony Avelar)

Golden State Warriors sharpshooter Klay Thompson knows how his team could have beaten the Toronto Raptors in the NBA Finals. Thompson told Marcus Thompson II of The Athletic that the Warriors would have won it all if Thompson didn’t get hurt in Game 6.

While the 29-year-old Thompson believes that would have been the case, he says not knowing for sure is a tough thing to deal with.

“In my mind, yes, we would’ve won if I did’t get hurt,” Thompson said. “But that’s just the nature of sports, you know? What-ifs? It doesn’t matter. It’s if you do your deed or not. In my mind, I think we would’ve. But you never know. That’s the hard part you’ve got to accept.

That answer is to be expected. It’s not like Thompson was going to say, “No, the Raptors would have destroyed us in Game 7.” Of course he was going to say the Warriors would have won if he was on the court.

What’s more revealing is that Thompson believes he was playing the best basketball of his life during that series.

“I honestly felt like I was at the peak of my NBA career up to that point. I was at my best. The way I was shooting the ball, the way I was playing defense. I felt like I was one of the best players out there. In past series, or Finals, you know, I’ve been able to defer. But in that series, I felt like I was just, like, as close to unstoppable as I’ve ever been.”

Thompson was fairly dominant in the five games he played against the Raptors. He averaged 26 points and shot 58 percent from three-point range.

As Thompson says, there’s no way to know who would have won the game if he were healthy. While it’s fun to debate sports what ifs, the reality is that the Warriors lost the series.

The only way for Thompson to prove his point would be to come back and lead the Warriors to another title. That should provide plenty of motivation for Thompson to get back on the court as soon as possible.

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Chris Cwik is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at christophercwik@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik

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