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
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.
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.
You give them credit. They played good defense. Some shots didn't fall down for us. Fortunately, it's not the best-of-1.
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).
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.
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 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.