On Thursday night, the Cleveland Cavaliers will face off against the Chicago Bulls inside Quicken Loans Arena, but it sounds like they’ll be doing so without the services of sharpshooter J.R. Smith.
According to multiple reports, Cavs head coach Tyronn Lue has elected to hold Smith out of Thursday night’s game due to knee soreness. Jae Crowder is expected to slide to the shooting guard position, and coach Lue has decided to give Channing Frye a starting nod.
In his 32 appearances with the Cavs this season, Smith, now 32 years of age, has turned in averages of 7.8 points on 38.4 percent shooting from the field (35.3 percent from beyond the arc), 3.1 rebounds, and 2.1 assists.
It is unclear how severe Smith’s injury is at this point. He didn’t play in the fourth quarter of Tuesday night’s loss to the Bucks, but that’s mostly because Cleveland’s bench unit was playing well at the time.
Frye, 34, didn’t play in Tuesday night’s game either, and just how many minutes he’ll play on Thursday remains to be seen.
Thursday night’s game is scheduled to tip at 7:00 p.m. EST with Fox SPorts Ohio having live broadcast coverage. Let’s see if the Cavs, winners in 18 of their last 20 outings, can keep their momentum rolling.