CLEVELAND: Shots are hard to come by when you’re a role player on a team that features LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love.
Richard Jefferson knew that is the case when he signed a free-agent contract to come to Cleveland and join the Cavaliers this past summer.
In his 15th season in the NBA, Jefferson doesn’t care about scoring opportunities. He cares about competing for a title and earning a ring.
Sunday, the Cavs checked off victory No. 1 in what they hope is a postseason that includes 16 victories by defeating the visiting Detroit Pistons 106-101 before a raucous sellout crowd of 20,562 at Quicken Loans Arena.
Jefferson played his usual reserve role and scored five points in 12 minutes of action.
Sure, his scoring pales in comparison to that of Irving (31 points in 38 minutes), Love (28 points in 38 minutes) and James (22 points in 41 minutes), but the guy they call “RJ” played a key part in the Cavs’ comeback.
Jefferson was on the court in the fourth quarter when the top-seeded Cavs trailed the eighth-seeded Pistons 83-76 with 11:04 to go in the fourth quarter.
Cavs coach Tyronn Lue called timeout with his team down seven following a jumper by Tobias Harris and a 3-pointer by Reggie Bullock. The Cavs then came out of the huddle and Jefferson nailed a 3-pointer.
“I was looking for anything to get myself going,” Jefferson said. “Kev ran the play a couple of times and he was able to make a great pass and I knocked it down. It did — it kind of got us going. … Sometimes it only takes one shot, one defensive stop to get you going and I was just the recipient of that first one.”
The Cavs put together a 10-pass sequence one possession later that ended with Matthew Dellavedova making a jumper off an assist from Jefferson.
Iman Shumpert and James joined Jefferson, Dellavedova and Love on the court as the Cavs made their comeback. Jefferson later made a jumper in the quarter, which featured eight points by James, seven points by Irving and six points by Love.
“Coach Lue came to the timeout [at 11:04] and made a couple changes, both from a personnel standpoint and also what we wanted to do offensively and defensively,” James said. “The group that went in at that point was able to make a run. For the most part, we just used our crowd, we used our ability to be able to come out of a timeout and execute.”
Jefferson was one of the attacking players when the Pistons were seeking an upset. J.R. Smith and Tristan Thompson also played well, but the Cavs will need more tough play from reserves such as Jefferson on Wednesday in the second game of the best-of-seven first-round series.
“I do see Channing Frye playing in this series,” Lue said. “Just tonight we had to go a different way because of the way the game went.”
Love said he and his teammates are now in “playoff mode.”
“Bron has been there and done that before,” Love said. “James Jones, Champ [James Jones], has been there and done that before. We have a number of guys on this team, veterans, that have prepared us for this moment.”