LeBron James defends Dellavedova over dirty play outcry

Agence France-Presse

This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article.

LeBron James defends Dellavedova over dirty play outcry
Despite accusations against Matthew Dellavedova for his incidents with Hawks players Kyle Korver and Al Horford, LeBron says his Cavs teammate is just playing aggressive basketball

CLEVELAND, USA – Four-time NBA Most Valuable Player LeBron James defended Cleveland Cavaliers teammate Matthew Dellavedova after cries of dirty play from the Atlanta Hawks over two dives for loose balls.

James scored 37 points, grabbed 18 rebounds and added 13 assists to lead the Cavaliers over Atlanta 114-111 in over-time on Sunday, giving Cleveland a 3-0 edge in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference final.

Dellavedova rolled onto the legs of Atlanta’s Kyle Korver in the previous game as both were trying to grab a loose ball on the court, resulting in a right ankle sprain that has sidelined the Hawks’ 3-point sharpshooter for the remainder of the playoffs.

On Sunday, Dellavedova dove for another loose ball and struck the legs of Al Horford, who responded with an elbow aimed at Dellavedova as he fell onto him. That resulted in a flagrant foul call and Horford’s ejection by officials.

“He went after my legs,” Horford said of Dellavedova. “If it was on purpose, we don’t know. Maybe it wasn’t on purpose. But with just his track record, I just felt like it was.”

James quickly went to the Aussie’s aid when asked about the matter.

“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.

“He doesn’t deserve it and I don’t like it.”

Dellavedova said he was simply going after the ball, not Horford.

“I saw the ball. I dived on the floor,” Dellavedova said. “If I stay on my belly, it’s going to be a jump ball. So I protect the ball and kick it out to a teammate.”

James said Dellavedova is not trying to take out his rivals, but merely playing aggressive basketball for an injury-hit team that needs such effort.

“No one, I think, in our league goes around trying to hurt people,” James said. “But you don’t take the aggressive nature out of the game.

“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.

“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.” – Rappler.com

Add a comment

Sort by

There are no comments yet. Add your comment to start the conversation.

Summarize this article with AI

How does this make you feel?

Loading
Download the Rappler App!