Immediately following their 118-113 Game 3 loss, the Cleveland Cavaliers entered the locker room seemingly down and defeated after blowing a six point lead late in the game. They went scoreless the final three minutes of the fourth quarter while the Golden State Warriors scored 11 straight points and stole the victory from Cleveland’s hands.
Minutes after the loss, a bit a surprising tweet appeared from guard J.R. Smith, and it said “Cavs in 7.”
Smith claims he did not tweet that message out, and wasn’t even by his locker when it went out. He said he was showering instead. Per ESPN:
“I got out of the shower and my phone was buzzing. I did not tweet that,” Smith told Cleveland.com after his postgame locker room interview session.
“I’m smarter than that. … I didn’t tweet that. I would be much smarter than that to tweet that at literally 12:04, right after the game.”
Smith oozes with confidence at all times, and although he put up two stinkers in Games 1 and 2, he came out and knocked down five big triples for the Cavs while almost helping the Cavs pull off the Game 3 victory. During Thursday’s media availability, Smith reiterated that he wasn’t the one who sent out that tweet.
“I don’t know, I’m not really a technology guy like that,” Smith said Thursday. “I’ve been known to send some pretty crazy tweets in the past. But I mean obviously I would know better than that. [It was posted at] 12:04 when the game was over at 12 so …”
Here’s Smith with NBA TV’s Kristen Ledlow on Thursday as well, and told her that he still believes in his team despite not claiming responsibility for that tweet.
Smith has one more chance right now to show that he believes, and it starts tonight in Game 4 between the Cavs and Warriors.