The Washington Wizards escaped Cleveland with a narrow 97-94 victory over the Cavaliers on Wednesday, after a late three-pointer from forward Kyle Kuzma silenced the fans at the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse arena. After the game, Kuzma wasn't finished with Cavs fans who'd been taunting him throughout the evening, telling reporters that, "Without LeBron [James], Cleveland wouldn't be s***."
Kuzma continued to take and make key shots for Washington down the stretch last night, finishing his big night with 22 points and shooting 6/9 from 3pt range. However, after the game, Kuzma, who won a championship with the purple and gold back in 2020, claimed that heckling Cavaliers fans helped contribute to his clutch scoring late in the ball game.
"At the end of the day, I'm ready for those moments," Kuzma said during his postgame interview. "I believe every shot that I take has a chance to go in. You have to have that mentality if you want to be successful at this level, with other elite athletes."
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Kuz continued, "So, I was just ready, I was ready for it. And plus, there was some hecklers during the game, talking to me. So, I had to. It was their fault, really. It was their fault."
During the game, Kuz noticed that one Cav's fan sign read, "LeBron won Kuzma his ring." Kyle took the heckler's comment personal and in stride, and didn't shy away addressing the fan with that same energy in his own comments after the game.
Kuzma explained, "They had a sign up that said 'LeBron won Kuzma his ring', and I said, 'Without LeBron [James], Cleveland wouldn't be s***.' So, they chose violence, and I just kept going. Thank you guys, appreciate it."
Kuz clarified that the violence was really just the hecklers 'talking too much,' and even went up to the fan with the sign after the game, and signed it for him.
Check out Kyle Kuzma's full interview response and interaction with the fan, below: