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Not many people have the guts to talk trash to LeBron James, but Golden State forward Juan Toscano-Anderson decided to poke the bear when his squad took on the Los Angeles Lakers in a play-in game last month.
Toscano-Anderson got James’ attention during a timeout, saying something that made the 18-year veteran turn around. It was from that moment that the four-time MVP seemed to refocus, helping lead the Lakers to a 103-100 comeback victory.
Toscano-Anderson doesn’t have the resume to be talking trash to James, but he explained his reasoning on the Real Ones podcast with Logan Murdock and Raja Bell.
“I went into that game like, I belong here, I’m here,” Toscano-Anderson said. “I was starting to gain my own confidence naturally, but then after we played the [Phoenix] Suns a few days before that, Chris Paul came up to me and was like ‘Man, I respect you, I respect dogs, I respect your story, how you got in this league.’ I got words from [Kevin Durant], a lot of guys from around the league.”
Toscano-Anderson Has No Regrets Over Incident
Despite suffering the loss — and ultimately another to the Grizzlies that ended the Warriors’ season — Toscano-Anderson didn’t have any regrets following his back and forth with James. In fact, he embraced the experience after James hit him with a strong comeback.
“It was a really dope experience,” Toscano-Anderson told the podcast. “I was kind of having out-of-body experiences at the same time because this is something I’ve always dreamed of, you know, playing at this level.
“When I was talking s**t to him … I’m mad because I let him score. I should have fouled him instead of letting him score. But it’s LeBron James, one of the best players in the world. But I’m like ‘I’m here. What’s up? You gotta score on me, you gotta show me.’ He showed me, but that felt fun to be able to talk s**t to LeBron and after he scored on the way back down, he was like ‘Man, that was great defense but I’m the best player in the world.'”
Lakers Admitted Warriors’ Trash Talk Was Motivation
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Getty ImagesLakers star Anthony Davis.
The Lakers had to dig deep for the victory after falling behind by double-digits at the half. Lakers star forward Anthony Davis admitted the trash talk from Toscano-Anderson and some chippy plays during the matchup motivated them.
“You never want to poke the bear,” Davis told reporters, per ESPN. “It’s funny. I told Jordan Poole that too. When we both got the double techs, I came down and hit the mid-range [shot] and I said ‘You done woke me up.’ [Toscano-Anderson] did the same thing with LeBron. And we’re confident enough in our games, especially when we’re struggling, that you never want to poke the bear. That’s playoff basketball. We love it. It’s fun to trash talk, it kind of gets us going.”
It could be the start of a fun little rivalry on the court, with the expectation being that the Warriors should be even more competitive next year with a healthy roster. The same could be said for the Lakers after getting bounced in the first round by the Suns after dealing with injuries to James and Davis.
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