After a dismal 2-of-11 shooting night in Game 3, Richard Jefferson heard from all the usual suspects: teammates, coaches, friends and family. What was the best advice he heard?
“Richard, I think you need to eat a little bit more before the game.”
Yup, he also heard from his mom.
But the advice that may prove most helpful to Jefferson came from Jason Kidd as the Nets prepared for last night’s Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals at the Meadowlands with a possible sweep and a second straight trip to the NBA Finals within the Nets’ grasp. In a nutshell, Kidd told Jefferson: stop forcing the issue, let the game come to you.
“I told him after the game, ‘Just let it come to you, no need to press,’ ” said Kidd. “He’s playing both ends as well as anybody; even though his offense isn’t producing the way he’d want it to, defensively he’s doing a great job.”
But there was one give-away in Game 3 that Jefferson was struggling. On a solo move, Jefferson, one of the most acrobatic and athletic players in the NBA, blew a dunk.
“When he missed that dunk, I knew he was having a bad night,” Kidd acknowledged.
Jefferson, in just his second season but first as a full-time starter, shot .501 with a 15.5 scoring average in the regular season. Against Milwaukee in the first round, he shot .545 and averaged 15.2 points. He tortured Boston in the conference semis with .529 shooting and an 18.3 points average. So there are raised eyebrows when he has numbers of .333 shooting and 8.0 points against the Pistons. And in the first three games, he had shot just seven free throws.
“I don’t think I took any bad shots, I was maybe pressing a little bit,” said Jefferson, whose Game 3 effort drew a harsh critique from TV analyst Magic Johnson. “That’s where you grow and you learn. I’m in my second year. I take advice from anybody. I struggled – I was missing dunks, I was missing easy shots. It was just a bad night more than anything.”
Of course, the Pistons had something to do with it. Detroit may have been down 0-3 in the series, but the Pistons were the NBA’s best defensive team in the regular season. Jefferson knows, too, that he has got to get to the line more. It’s not for lacking of trying, he said. No calls and all that. And in that regard, Byron Scott entered and presented his idea. He told Jefferson to lay off the refs. When players press, the whole world plots and conspires against them, including, of course, refs, who only blow whistles against them.
“[Scott] said, ‘Richard, we will take care of the officials, just go and play, don’t worry about charges, don’t worry about bad calls or good calls, just go out there and play. If the ref makes a bad call, just suck it up and play,’ ” Jefferson related, stressing his need to stay active and get involved. “I’m trying. If you take out the fourth quarter of two games ago, I haven’t shot any free throws in a game and three quarters. So for a person that slashes and tries to get to the hole, it’s tough.
“Again, they’re all judgment calls and Corliss Williamson and some of those other guys are just such great defenders that I’m having trouble getting to the line on not even a consistent basis, on any kind of basis.”
