J.R. Smith is often considered as a divisive figure among NBA types, mostly because of the way his gunner mentality can take teams out of games about as quickly as it can get them back in. But the Cleveland Cavaliers, according to LeBron James and coach Tyronn Lue, benefitted from that against the Denver Nuggets on Saturday, albeit in a loss.
Despite the Cavs losing against the Nuggets, both James and Lue liked the way Smith played, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN.
“We needed it,” said LeBron James, who played all but the final 20 seconds of the second half chasing the win, of Smith. “He started in the second half with three or four straight buckets and felt good, felt great actually, got into a great rhythm with his dribble. They started to switch a lot with a big on him and he was just breaking the bigs down and getting to his shot. It was definitely a big-time game for him for sure.”
Lue said it was really in the second half that Smith shined, per McMenamin.
“He’s a guy that can get hot,” Lue said. “We know he can miss two, three, four shots in a row and he can come out and make seven in a row. He came out and gave us that spurt in the second half that got us back in the game, being aggressive. I thought we called his number because we needed a little jolt from him and he came up big for us in the second half.”
Smith shot 7-of-12 from the field and had 19 points in the loss. He was one game removed from a suspension for throwing a bowl of soup at assistant coach Damon Jones. It was a ridiculous thing to do with not much explanation as to why it happened.
But if Smith keeps playing the way he did on Saturday, “soupgate” will be a thing of the past.
