Richard Jefferson
Richard Jefferson
Richard Allen Jeffersonis an American professional basketball player for the Cleveland Cavaliers of the National Basketball Association. He was a member of the United States men's national basketball team at the 2003 Tournament of the Americas and the Athens 2004 Summer Olympics, and won the NBA championship as a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionBasketball Player
Date of Birth21 June 1980
CityLos Angeles, CA
CountryUnited States of America
When it came to scoring, which a lot of people have problems with, I really let him take that role. I took that secondary stuff.
We're getting there. Late in the game, when we needed shots and we needed stops, they were there.
We are getting there. You can't do it over one season. It takes a few seasons to get it done. He is in his prime, I am coming into mine. So it can really carry over.
We were a team that could turn it on and off. People say you can't do it, but we were that team. I'm not saying it was often, but something wasn't clicking. Our chemistry wasn't right. But when things got changed up, things changed a little more.
We understand that this next game is going to be the hardest one of the series.
We didn't do a very good job of playing through each other or through the people we should have been. And then we got cold. They were hitting shots and mainly it was a lot of defensive problems. But sometimes your offense is a part of the problem.
You don't prove yourself until the playoffs. Detroit and Miami are the two best teams in the conference, and until someone knocks them off, they're still the two best teams in the conference.
We didn't really shoot the ball very well as a team. When you attack the basket and try to get to the free-throw line, that's something that can kind of help you out. When you're not hitting shots and you continue to get to the basket and get easy buckets, that's something that we try to do.
We are a better team than this. We just had a couple of stretches where we are struggling, every team goes through that.
We're not very mentally tough. We're not very physically tough. It's consistent. At some point in time you've got to get mad.
We're not sitting up here, jumping up and down like we won a championship. When things are going well, you can't act like you're surprised they are.
We played against one of the top two or three teams in the league. We beat some very, very good teams during the streak. Now we have to try and continue our home dominance.
Our second quarter we've really struggled the last few games. I don't know what's going on with that or why we've struggled. We have to figure it out. We had some success in that first quarter (in Minnesota), but again, we went away from it.
They paved the way and started the tradition. It's our job to be good players and good people for the ones who will follow us.