The Cleveland Cavaliers are two wins away from reaching their third straight NBA finals, and if the Boston Celtics don't put on a great performance in the next two games, Cleveland will run through them just like they did in the first two games of the series. Right now, the defending champions have a 2-0 lead over the Celtics after two blowout victories, and Bradley Beal, whose team got eliminated by Boston, said the Cavaliers didn't want to play the Washington Wizards.
Richard Jefferson, the Cavaliers forward, decided to respond to Beal. Jefferson was respectful and he praised the Wizards shooting guard, but he also said how he shouldn't talk since his team is out of the playoffs.
Beal's comments
Bradley Beal said the Cavaliers didn't want to play against his team: "They didn’t want to go down in the second round,” the guard said. Beal, whose Wizards lost in seven games to the Boston Celtics, believes that the Cavaliers avoided the Wizards on purpose by giving up the first seed in the conference.
The Boston Celtics finished as the first seed in the East and they eventually played against the Wizards in the second round. If it was the Cavaliers who finished first, they would have faced off against the Wizards and things might have been different. However, the reality is that the Wizards got knocked out of the competition, and Beal's comments won't change anything.
Jefferson put Beal in his place
While it's true that the Wizards-Cavaliers series would have been interesting and competitive, the Wizards were not good enough to advance to the Conference Finals and match up against the Cavaliers. “It seems like the teams that are at home now want to start talking. 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," said Richard Jefferson.
Jefferson also added how Beal is a great young player who has a bright future, but he said his comments don't make much sense since the Cavaliers won ten games in a row. At this moment, it seems that Cleveland will tie the record for most consecutive playoff wins, as their next two games are at home.
Considering that the Wizards only won one out of three games against them in the regular season, it is hard to believe, ultimately, that the Wizards could have prevented the Cavaliers from reaching the NBA finals.
