LeBron James vehemently defended teammate Matthew
Dellavedova on Sunday night, refuting suggestions that the Cavaliers point
guard is a dirty player.
"I'm a little bit off about it because this is my guy,
this is my teammate and this is a guy that goes out and works his tail off
every single night and people are trying to give him a bad rap," James
said while sharing the podium with Dellavedova following Cleveland's 114-111
overtime win over the Atlanta Hawks. "He doesn't deserve it and I don't
like it."
James' 37-point, 18-rebound, 13-assist Game 3 was clutch,
but ultimately rates as another day at the playoff office, not one of his
classics.
James was thorough in explaining why he believed Dellavedova
was in the right on both plays.
"Well, you just play the game the right way,"
James said. "At this point, you try to do whatever it takes to win. You
don't want to hurt nobody. No one, I think, in our league goes around trying to
hurt people. But you don't take the aggressive nature out of the game.
"I think in the case of [Dellavedova], ever since you
were a kid, the ball on the floor, the first man to the floor usually gets the
ball. There's no difference to what Delly did to Kyle Korver last game and 18
guys diving on the floor late in the game tonight. It was like six or seven
guys diving on the floor for that loose ball. Delly was on the floor, J.J.
[James Jones] was on the floor, Mike Scott was on the floor, Shump [Iman
Shumpert] was on the floor, J.R. [Smith] was on the floor. Just no one got
hurt."
James continued:
"And there's no difference between me boxing out, or Al
Horford boxing me out and Delly boxing someone out. That is a fundamental box
out. That's all it is. And we all know that. We don't never want to play with
the integrity of the game and try to get people hurt. That's not what it's
about. Because we all want brotherhood at the end of the day, an NBA family.
But you play to win the game and you play aggressively. That's what it's
about."
Dellavedova said that the play in question began with the
Hawks' All-Star big man fouling him.
"I'm boxing him out," Dellavedova said. "He's
pulling my left arm down. I'm trying to stay up and he's just pulling me down.
I mean, the tape's there."
James said that there was another play in the Cavs-Hawks
series that didn't get nearly as much attention, but was just as harmful.
"In Game 2, when [Pero] Antic two-hand shoves me out of
the air," James said, referring to the flagrant 1 foul Antic was called
for against James in the first quarter of Game 2. "I mean, the fact that
I'm still playing, we don't talk about it, but he two-hand shoves me in the
air. So, what are we really talking about? Are we going to talk about us trying
to win basketball games or about those guys trying to figure out a way to
[prove] that Matthew Dellavedova is this type of [dirty player]? This guy, he
works his tail off every single day. He beats the odds and he comes to play as
hard as he can every single night. If they're focused on Delly, then they're
focused on the wrong thing."
Not surprisingly, other Cavs players also supported
Dellavedova.
"I see it as Delly being one of those guys that doesn't
stop working," Shumpert said. "He's not going to stop boxing out.
He's not going to stop until he sees that we have the possession. A guy like
that, it can get under your skin and it causes guys to have reactions of
wanting to fight back or throw a quick jab at him and it's natural in games
like this, it's high-intensity, very emotional. Nobody wants to get undercut,
nobody wants anything like that to happen, but if you can see the play, Delly
is just trying to box out, falls off balance, guy is tangled in his arms and he
falls into Al's knee. I don't think that once he sees the tape, I don't think
Al's going to be mad about that."
Added Jones: "I think sometimes, because it's uncommon
for guys to go out there and lay it on the line every single possession in
every facet of the game, it's kind of shocking at first. But you look at it,
Delly is that guy that's boxing out. ... He's down there fighting amongst the
trees and he gets no credit, no love, but we know how valuable that is to us
and we respect him."
