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
You give them credit. They played good defense. Some shots didn't fall down for us. Fortunately, it's not the best-of-1.
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.
Vince has hit some of the craziest shots in the history of this league. But the importance of that shot is what I am most proud of for him.
Some nights, things just click. It's a combination of good defense. But they also had some good looks. They had some shots that they normally hit. You combine that with good defense and it was just a tough night (for Phoenix).
My first three years here is all about team and having lots of players around me. So you had to learn how to maximize your few opportunities. I was never a volume shooter. You look at my second or third year, I shot about 50 percent from the floor.
It's not so much the type of shot he hit, but the importance of the shot.
The ball was moving, to tell you the truth. It was drive, drive, pass, pass and then somebody had an open shot and we just knocked them down.
When your defense falls, sometimes your offense can be part of the problem. We were taking some questionable shots that were leading to easy transition baskets on their end.
We're getting there. Late in the game, when we needed shots and we needed stops, they were there.
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.
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.
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.
I do believe there are other teams in this conference that are very good. A shot here, a shot there, you never know what's going to happen.
It would have made things a lot easier on Vince (Carter).