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NBA FINALS: CLEVELAND VS GOLDEN STATE

June 6, 2017

Richard Jefferson

Cleveland, Ohio: Practice Day

Q. Slowing the pace down, what advantages are there to that?
RICHARD JEFFERSON: I don't think at any point in time we have ever talked about slowing the pace down. Last year, this year. It's not about slowing the pace down; it is less turnovers, which increases the pace, and more ball movement.

If we just keep the ball on one side of the floor, if we don't get a lot of ball movement, then their other guys are allowed to rest. So it's the right type of pace that you need. We don't want to slow the ball down. They have great guys, but we still stand by the fact that we have the best downhill guy in the NBA in Bron, who creates so many open shots for Kyle Korver, for JR, for Kevin and for Channing, who all get a lot of threes in transition.

So to slow up the pace would be changing who we are. We just have to play with the right type of pace and the right type of ball movement.

Q. How important if you play the inside-out game will it be for those outside guys to obviously nail down their shots?
RICHARD JEFFERSON: This is not about scoring. This is about us playing defense, us playing the right way, us making second and third efforts, which it hasn't been at the rate that we would have liked. They have just been sustaining their efforts for longer periods of time. What did we score? 110 last game? That's more than enough points to win most basketball games, unless you allow them to shoot 50 percent.

They're great. The task is there, but I believe we're up to the task and the challenge.

Q. So how much of a factor is just the home court, the home crowd, the Q, all that stuff?
RICHARD JEFFERSON: We're looking forward to it. They're always one of the best in the league. I expect our crowd to have a new sense of energy that we haven't seen in the postseason, and I think our guys feed off of it.

Q. Why does that help you?
RICHARD JEFFERSON: The home court helps because you have your same routine. I think you're able to get extra shots up at shootaround. You're able to eat the stuff that you like. You're able to kind of get your same routine.

You have to understand on the road you're staying in a hotel, the room service. There's just a routine that you're able to do [at home]. And whenever you can do something consistently -- like if you're not shooting the ball well, you can go and shoot tonight at home; you can go and shoot in the morning. You can get extra shots up before and after practice. You can get yourself into more of a rhythm.

Plus, we're in our normal time zone. You're just a little bit more acclimated to everything in our locker room versus what's in that locker room. You got a hot tub, cold tub. Just so many more things to get your body ready that goes into that situation.

Q. How much has the style of the league changed? Because you came in playing really fast with the Nets. Is this even faster?
RICHARD JEFFERSON: I think it's different. I think because we played fast and we ran for layups. This, I don't think anybody was faster than that team. In my humble opinion. But we ran for layups, and we didn't really have guys that could shoot the ball.

This is different now because you have guys running for threes so the lanes are a lot more open. When you have J-Kidd [Jason Kidd] going downhill and you had me and Kenyon [Martin] or Vince [Carter] trying to get dunks, that was really, really tough. It put a lot of pressure on the defense. And then guys like Kerry Kittles would come in, Rodney Rogers would shoot threes on the secondary [break]. Now you have guys sprinting and stopping on the three-point line, which is different.

They have multiple guys; we have multiple guys. Like Kyle Korver, I don't think has gotten a layup in the playoffs. But he's sprinting to the three-point line. He is opening it up for the guys going downhill. So it's different. And looking back on it, I wish we probably would have had one or two more shooters back in my Jersey days. I think it's a little bit different, but it's the same premise. Very similar to Magic and all those guys when they used to run. Running has the same mentality.

Q. You guys would have been criticized -- can you imagine in your second year you're on the break and you pass up a layup to kick out to a three?
RICHARD JEFFERSON: Oh, I get in trouble for it now. I get in trouble for it now because I try and run for a layup, and they're telling me to run wide to the three-point line. It's been ingrained for 10 years to try to get a layup first, and if you don't have it, to work your way out. But even then for a guy like myself, who I feel like does a good balance of shooting threes and drives, if I catch it at the three-point line and I have a man closing out to me, it opens up the lane for drives or you get open shots.

So you understand it. And the game's evolved. Again, the minute you get a bunch of big men that can post up, again, the three-point shot will change a little bit.

Q. You were a great defender early in your career. Do you feel like you're maybe even a better defender now just because of your experience and strength?
RICHARD JEFFERSON: I'm not as quick and agile. I can't make up for mistakes. I can't let a guy go by me and go get a block. I don't have that extra burst to go get that steal. Or if I don't box out, to still be able to go get that rebound. So from that sense, you have to be smarter. You have to make sure that you're on the body, you're boxing out. It's not a jumping contest. So I believe that I'm a smarter defender. I wouldn't say that I'm a better defender than I was when I was young.

Q. So many of you guys, when you get older, you start guarding bigger guys. Iguodala does it. David West is playing centers now.
RICHARD JEFFERSON: It's a versatility that you're able to bring because you understand that your job is just to either box out or to keep the spacing. You also understand they have to guard you on the other end. So it's a versatility that you give to wing players. Bron guards bigger guys. I did it. Jason Kidd even did it when I was younger, guarding twos, threes, fours, whoever it was.

As long as it wasn't a guy with an over-the-top height advantage, we used to switch one through four with Kenyon and J-Kidd because we had those guys that could defend multiple positions. So it's something that's been coveted for a long time in this league, and it's going to continue to be.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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