Media Conference right after 2003 Finals game 4

New Jersey Nets forward Richard Jefferson spoke with the media after the team's 2003 NBA finals game 4 win in New Jersey over the San Antonio Spurs. With the win, the series is now tied at two wins apiece.

Q: You had a little more success operating in the halfcourt tonight, why was that?

Richard Jefferson: I think, again, we are adjusting to their size. We are getting used to it and understanding the plays that we can run. We have some plays now that you kind of bring one of their big men up, so you only really have to contest with one and we are getting better at adjusting to it.

Q: You also got a little bit of back-door cuts, stuff like that.

Richard Jefferson: You can only deny us for so long. We will get back to our cuts. And again we are starting to learn the offense that we can run that's going to make us more effective.

Q: How does it feel to finally have the kind of game that everybody was sort of expecting you would have?

Richard Jefferson: It feels good. Again, I don't put too much pressure on myself. The way I look at it is Game 1, I had a solid game. I could have played a little bit better.

The last two games I struggled but we won one of them. I don't think we are so much living and dying by me but I understand that in order for this team to be successful and win a championship, I have to play well.

Q: The big thing for you is they wanted you to relax, Coach said and same with Kenyon. Talk about relaxing and talk about how big Game 5 is going to be.

Richard Jefferson: Game 5 is going to be huge. For me, I'm the youngest player on this team, age-wise, but I have a lot of experience. And I respect a lot of the guys out there, Kenyon Martin, Jason Kidd, Byron Scott. I respect all of them. So when they tell me to relax, I listen.

Tonight I just said I'm going to focus on rebounding, I'm not going to worry about scoring and then I had six or seven early and my offense started coming, as I focused on rebounding, and my offense started coming and I didn't pay attention to it.

Game 5 is going to be big. Again, we haven't been given that much credit. Even when we win, people are not giving us much credit. It's more about what the Spurs are not doing. People are not talking about what the Nets are doing. You don't shoot 28 percent just because you're playing bad; the other team is doing things well.

For Game 5 we want to put pressure on them to go up to their place and win both.

Q: We noticed that you were rebounding quite a bit when the game first started but when you had that dunk, how did that feel?

Richard Jefferson: It felt good. Again, we understand this is the NBA Finals and a lot of people are hanging on a lot of words that are said, but Malik Rose talked a lot about Mutombo's dunk. We are not a team to talk trash and we follow our leader Jason Kidd to be very humble, but if you want to talk about dunks, we have some guys out there that can get some dunks of our own.

Q: Does a play like that get you juiced up and your teammates as well?

Richard Jefferson: It gets them excited. They call me "Young Fellow" because like I said, I'm the youngest guy on the team. When they see me doing things and getting out there and being active, it makes everything else ignite. It's the same thing with Kenyon Martin. When Kenyon Martin and Jason Kidd get going, it makes everybody else pick it up a notch.

Q: You said you wanted to concentrate on rebounding, why rebounding?

Richard Jefferson: That's just something that you can concentrate on defense. That's one thing that's very easy to concentrate on. If you go out and just try to get to the defensive glass, I got a tip in early in the game, also got a goaltend but you just go out there and try to find another way to impact the game. If I'm going to shoot 3 for 10, I'm going to pull down 14 rebounds. I'm going to find a way to be effective. That's one thing I learned from Jason Kidd; he might not have a great scoring night but he will have 9 rebounds and 15 assists, he will finds a way to impact the game, and tonight that's what I did.


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