Kuzma says hecklers in Cleveland made him beat Cavs originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
Kyle Kuzma hit four threes in the final 5:42 of the fourth quarter on Wednesday night to lift the Wizards over the Cavs in a game even he admitted they had “no business” winning. He credited his clutch performance to having confidence in his ability to compete with anyone in the NBA. Well, that and there were some mouthy Cavaliers fans who lit a fire under him all night.
Yes, apparently there were some fans who got under Kuzma’s skin during Wednesday’s game with their incessant trash-talking, so he decided to shut them up. He explained what happened during his postgame press conference and the story is nothing short of amazing.
“I was just ready for it and plus there were some hecklers during the game talking to me, so I had to. It was their fault, really, it was their fault,” he said.
That prompted a follow-up question from a reporter in the arena who saw him turn to the crowd after one of his fourth quarter threes.
“That was to them. Yeah, they had a sign up that said ‘LeBron [James] won Kuzma his ring.’ I said ‘without Bron, Cleveland wouldn’t be s—.’ They chose violence, so I just kept going,” Kuzma said.
That led to a funny exchange between Kuzma and a reporter, who asked what he meant by choosing violence. Though it’s a figure of speech, it warranted some clarification.
“Not violence, but they were just talking too much. Unnecessary,” Kuzma replied.
Kuzma had 22 points and hit two of his six total threes in the final 29 seconds. That included a go-ahead triple with 11.4 seconds left. After that, he can talk all he wants. He got the last word both on the court and off of it.
