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 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.
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.
In the fourth quarter, we predominantly play through him. He's our leading scorer and he always takes the majority of the shots. A lot of people that don't watch us a lot throughout the year don't understand that's how we play.
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 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.
We've spoiled people early. We could win the rest of our games, but we're going to be judged by how we play in the playoffs. This is good. This is great. But we understand that's how we're going to be judged.
We've shown improvement and I believe our schedule gets a little more favorable. If we keep everybody healthy, I believe we can (win 50). I think we're going to be a team that makes a real good push. Sometimes, people forget about what we can do.
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.
It felt really good after (Wednesday's) practice. Then I tried to do more stuff Thursday when we were still in San Antonio and it went backwards a little bit. . . . It was my fault, I tried to do too much.
It felt good. I felt like I had a chance.