The Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors are on a collision course for a third straight NBA Finals meeting, having both torn through the first two rounds of the playoffs to reach their respective conference finals without dropping a game.
Though his team has had an equally stress-free run out West, Warriors forward Draymond Green told reporters earlier this week that he'd expected and hoped the Cavs' two opponents, the Indiana Pacers and Toronto Raptors, would've given them more competition.
"When you watch Cleveland play, you only watching one side of good basketball," Green said. "That's kind of weak."
Cavs forward Richard Jefferson took umbrage with that, and pointed out on his Road Trippin' podcast Thursday that the Warriors have gotten some pretty decent breaks themselves - including playing the Trail Blazers and Jazz without Jusuf Nurkic and George Hill (respectively) this year, and the Grizzlies without Mike Conley two years ago, and playing the Cavs without Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love in the 2015 Finals.
"Somebody that decided to start a podcast after we did wanted to comment on the quality of teams that we're playing, which I think is just not very nice," Jefferson said, alluding to the friendly competition he and Green have engaged in over their rival podcasts.
"Because obviously we know what Portland and Utah have accomplished this year, or just in general. I can imagine with Nurk being out, obviously Portland was at full strength. With George Hill being out, obviously Utah was at full strength. Mike Conley being out a couple years ago: full strength. Cavs not having Kevin or Kyrie - full strength. So at the end of the day, to criticize what other people are doing ... I think it's just best that you take care of whatever's in front of you.
"But you should never criticize what other people are doing. You should never criticize what other teams are doing. At the end of the day, if you are working with an efficient group of guys that are handling their business, then you should take it. But you should also look at, 'Have we been playing the highest level of teams every single year, everybody at full strength?' before you go and criticize other people."
- With h/t to Sporting News
