In a recent one-on-one interview with CSN Mid-Atlantic, Bradley Beal claimed that the Cavaliers wanted to avoid his Washington Wizards in the postseason, saying: “They didn’t want to see us.”
“I always said that,” Beal said in his interview with CSN. “I felt like that’s a reason they didn’t play us in the second round. They didn’t want to see us in the second round. … If they were going to go down, they were going to go down in the conference finals. They didn’t want to go down in the second round. They knew we would give them that competitiveness and that challenge. We were going to bring it every night and go out there and try to win. We weren’t going to be fazed by who’s on the floor. Dang, it sucks. It sucks. It sucks.”
Cavs forward Richard Jefferson caught wind of Beal’s remarks on Friday and decided to respond with a straight-forward message.
Via James Herbert of CBS Sports:
“It seems like the teams that are at home now want to start talking,” Jefferson said after Cleveland’s 44-point drubbing of the Boston Celtics in Game 2. “Dion Waiters was saying that nobody wanted to see the Miami Heat … then Bradley Beal says nobody wants to (play the Wizards). Well, if no one does, then show up. If you get there, then prove it.”
Beal and the Wizards were eliminated from the playoffs in the semifinal round by the Celtics. If Washington had managed to advance to the conference finals, they would have faced the Cavaliers. In the regular season, Cleveland won two of their three games against Washington.
“Bradley’s a great young player, he’s going to have a great career in front of him, but don’t talk about teams that didn’t want to see you when you’re out of the playoffs,” Jefferson continued. “It makes absolutely no sense. A team that has now won 10 in a row in the playoffs, the defending champions, didn’t want to see you, but you didn’t get out of the second round? It makes headlines, but does it make sense? How does it make you come across when people want to talk about basketball IQ?”
Had Beal been a bit more consistent in the Boston series, he would have had the opportunity to put his money where his mouth is in the Eastern Conference Finals. Beal scored 27 or more points in four games against the Celtics, but 16 or less in the other three. He also missed a game-winner at the end of Game 2.
“He wouldn’t say that before the series if he was going against LeBron James,” Jefferson said in closing. “He can say it now that he’s out of harm’s way.”