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
Vince is our primary scorer and that's his role. When he goes down, it's not a surprise that we score with a lot of crazy shots or play out of our heads. We're just going out there and playing aggressively and good things are happening.
I got it going in the second half. I just tried to keep playing through my teammates. They found me on some good looks. Honestly, our whole team had it going in the second half.
It was my first time being injured. Made it back for the playoffs, and started off this season struggling, now we are playing well. Ups and downs. Hopefully we will have more ups than downs.
Everybody's surprised. There's guys, not naming anybody, that won't sniff the playoffs, that are 15 games under .500, that are playing in the game. But it is an All-Star Game. It's an individual performance game. Very rarely do team players get rewarded. He's probably the best team player in the game.
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.
I think we are going to be a team that makes a real good push. We have been a team that people consistently talk about for the last five years (come) playoff time. Sometimes people forget what we can do. I think the last 15 games, a lot of people are going to be talking about other (teams) while we are still playing well and having a chance to make some noise in the playoffs.
He's been playing well for them all year. He's a guys who's been experienced for them, he's played in the NBA Finals, so a first-round playoff game, there's not so much pressure on him to perform.
He might not be happy, but he'd have to go there and play. I guess it would be like playing for Charlotte or playing for Toronto.
It was just one of those nights. It was a combination of us playing good defense and getting good looks and good shots. We were fortunate to get them on a night where they didn't hit their shots.
It was just like the good old days. When I'm out there running, then that's when I'm playing my best. It felt so good out there. We showed that we still have the ability to get out there.
In the first half, especially the second quarter, we were not playing D the way we needed to.
Hey, we've been playing the same way the whole year and we've been successful. I believe in my teammates. I believe in my coaching staff. We've been playing one way, all year long.
I feel confident every game now. We have our whole roster, and we're playing well.
The guy (O'Neal) missed four shots, including free throws. The difference was that he was playing at home. A lot of things tend to go your way when you're at home.