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
I say we can work. We won the division pretty easily. We had some pretty good stretches where we proved our dominance. I wouldn't even say I had a great year.
It was important for us to defend, make them play half court and limit them to one shot. It was an all around great effort by every player.
Coming into this series, he wasn't really known as a defensive stopper. But he's been coming in and giving us unbelievable minutes on Stevie Jackson. He's been in the passing lanes. He's been a great defender for us.
Mike is such a great player, such a clutch player. I joke with him, because he doesn't jump very high and he's not very fast, yet he's still one of the most effective guys in the NBA because he's so intelligent. He knows the game, and he knows what it takes to get it done.
He was unreal tonight -- inside and out. His confidence just grew and grew as the game wore on and it was just great to see.
He's one of the most intelligent basketball players I've been around. This was a great idea. It worked ? right in the nick of time. If he would have said it a minute-and-a-half later we would have lost the game.
A.J. has never done that before. He had a great game. To act like that's going to be the norm over the series, I think everybody knows that's not going to be the case. He got hot. He hit some big shots for them.
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.
There is no doubt about it, both teams pride themselves on defense. It's not going to be a high-scoring game. It's going to be that type of series.
There are five or six teams that realistically have a chance to win the championship, and I definitely believe we're one of them.
There are five or six teams that can make it to the end. Nothing's changed.