Even though they swept the No. 1 seed Toronto Raptors, the Cleveland Cavaliers had some drama surrounding them after it appeared shooting guard Rodney Hood refused to check himself into Game 4.
He did not play through three quarters in Cleveland’s Game 4 win over the Raptors, and when head coach Tyronn Lue asked Hood to enter the game with seven minutes remaining, the shooting guard didn’t move from the bench.
Hood since has apologized to the team, and Thursday, he addressed the media as the team was preparing for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference final against the Boston Celtics.
“It was the end of the game, seven minutes to go, and I saw we had bodies, you know. Jose (Calderon) wanted to go in, and I told them ‘just let Jose play.’ But, you know, I should have just went in, there wouldn’t have been no confusion,” Hood said, via USA Today’s Spencer Davies.
“Obviously, I should have known since I didn’t play throughout the duration of the game it was going to look bad, but it wasn’t as people are trying to make it. Next time I’m definitely going to go in. I apologized to T. Lue for any confusion and stuff like that.”
Interesting.
Hood logged 39 minutes through three games in the Cavs’ second-round series against Toronto.
Game 1 of the ECF against the Celtics is set for Sunday at TD Garden.
