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NBA FINALS: CLEVELAND VS GOLDEN STATEJune 3, 2017Richard JeffersonOakland, California: Practice Day Q. Do the role players as a group need to pick it up a little bit? RICHARD JEFFERSON: No, it's one game. We don't want to overreact from the standpoint of -- we don't want to overreact from the standpoint of stress. But, yeah, I think all the guys know that we need to play better. I don't think there's one guy on our team that can say that they felt like they had a good game, and we want to build off of that. We just need to play better. I guarantee you, if you talk to them, they feel like they can play better. So that's just the kind of approach that we're going to take is that Kyle's going to shoot the ball well, Deron is going to shoot the ball, JR's going to get going, Tristan is going to have an impact. It's just a matter of doing it at the time it's needed. Q. Will you guys be making any adjustments? RICHARD JEFFERSON: We're not making too many adjustments. We just need to play better. That's the key thing. We talked about it, like Kyle Korver had a pretty good look from three going into the half, and we were down by five, he misses it, but then Andre Iguodala, who is not nearly the percentage three-point shooter, makes a contested shot. So that's the difference between going into halftime down by two and down by eight. And even at that point in time the turnover disparity wasn't that great. Q. (No microphone.) RICHARD JEFFERSON: No, no, that's not an adjustment, that's just playing better. But it just lets you know that something as simple as one of the best three-point shooters in the NBA having an open look and a guy that you want to shoot contested jumpers knocking down shots, and that's the difference between going in at halftime down by two or down by eight. And we look at that like, hey, look, we're not far away from where we want to be, we just have to clean it up and pick up our intensity. Q. Do you guys maybe need to play at a slower pace? RICHARD JEFFERSON: Not at all. We have the best downhill guy in the NBA. When you combine that with Kyrie and his ability to finish in transition, when we get out in transition, it allows guys like JR and guys like Kyle Korver to hit open shots. So we don't want to slow up the pace, but we're going to have to turn them over more than we did. I would say in the half court we have better one-on-one players, but in the half court they probably have a little better system. Q. Did you guys have communication issues defensively? RICHARD JEFFERSON: No, no. What did they shoot from the field? Anybody here? Q. 42. RICHARD JEFFERSON: They shot 42 percent from the field. We turned the ball over 20 times, and they had nine dunks and they shot 42 percent from the field, one of the best shooting teams in the history of the NBA. How far off are we? Not very far. But that also shows you that it only takes you to be a little off in order for teams to get very, very hungry. And it's on both sides. Last year there was only one close game in the series, and that was Game 7. We blew them out multiple times. They beat us badly multiple times. So if you can hold them to 42 percent, giving up 20 turnovers, giving up six to eight dunks in transition, you don't have to change your defense, you just have to do better at not turning it over and not give them easy buckets. That's not saying that Klay's not going to shoot the ball well the next game, it's not saying that they're not going to be different, but if we can hold them to 42 percent and we cut our turnovers from 20 to 12 and we maybe turn them over more than four times, all of a sudden now we're in a position where we're winning that game or we're up by 10. So the formula is there, we just have to execute it and not panic. Q. How about physicality? That seems to be a buzzword, even from Ty, that you guys need more physicality. Where can that show up? RICHARD JEFFERSON: I think it can show up with everybody. I think if you look at just our guys, down the line, we're a very physical team, Bron, Kyrie, JR, Tristan, Kevin. Like down the line, you look at our guys bring a physicality. Now, for them, they have a lot of length. That's probably their strength to their defense. Andre Iguodala is very -- has great length, Livingston, Kevin Durant, Klay. All of these guys have great length. For us we have to bring a physicality to it, and that is something that we have to increase as the series goes on. Q. At the rim, particularly, I know they only shot 16 free throws, which is very low for the amount of paint shots they had. RICHARD JEFFERSON: Well, their paint shots were mostly dunks. So when you're finishing that, it's not going to translate to a bunch of free throws. But, no, I think it's just on everything. I think it's in transition. I think it's in the half court, in the movement. But they did a very, very good job of putting us in a position to turn over the ball. We have to avoid that. We have to try to turn them over more. But like I said, from that standpoint, they shot 42 percent from the field with us turning the ball over 20 times. Typically if you turn it over 20 times and you give up bunch of dunks in transition, you're at 45, if not better, from the field. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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