3. What doesn’t show up in the box score
J.R. Smith and Jose Calderon combined for six points on Wednesday (all scored by Calderon), but the way they contributed doesn’t show up on the stat sheet.
Smith drew the primary responsibility of defending Oladipo and held him to just 12 points on 2-of-15 shooting. His active hands in the third quarter in particular were what helped the Cavs pull ahead and get stops.
“I struggled in the first half, got off his body a few times, came back in at halftime and T-Lue challenged me to do a better job,” Smith said. “I just tried to be more physical and stay with his body more as much as possible.”
Calderon scored all six of his points in the third quarter, and made key plays like getting a jump ball with Bojan Bogdanovic and then winning the tip to energize the Cavs.
“He’s given us a lift all year,” James said of Calderon. “When his number’s been called he’s just been ready.”
Because of performances like that, the Cavs remain alive in the Hunger Games that are the playoffs, to use an analogy that James coined.
“We just got to continue to find hiding places and continue to stay out of the way,” he said. “People might be ganging up on us, so we just gotta figure out how we can stay alive and tonight was another opportunity for that.
“Hopefully tonight we can get some sponsors to send us down some food or something from the hierarchy. I’ll take some rest.”
LeBron was asked about his Hunger Games analogy relating to the Playoffs. Says: “Hopefully tonight we can get us some sponsors to send something down… send me some rest.” pic.twitter.com/Gy1LDCmyh7
— Ashley Bastock (@AshleyBastock42) April 26, 2018
James won’t get his wish for rest quite yet. Cavs-Pacers Game 6 will be Friday at 8 p.m. in Indiana.
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