2. Return of Swish
While Love needed this breakout game at the 5 position, arguably the only other player on the Cavs roster who needed a breakout game more was J.R. Smith.
A breakout game is what he got, finally finding a rhythm to his shot and ending the night with a season-high 20 points on 7-of-12 shooting and going 5-of-7 from deep. After his third three of the night, Smith passed Rashard Lewis (1,787) for 14th place on the NBA’s all-time three-pointers made list.
“I just went back to my old mentality, shoot every time I touch it, and fortunately, it went the right way. Less thinking involved, just playing, playing the way I like to play, and after that then I can start scaling back.”
“I was on my way to the arena today. I talked to my dad, talked to my mom, pretty much like I always do on the way to the arena, and I was like, ‘to the hell with it, I’m just going to go back to my old way of playing. Just shoot, shoot, shoot and see if I can get myself out of this thing.'”
It’s safe to say that his teammates recognized the importance of getting him involved with the offense, and the importance of his breakout game coming when the Cavs have been down more than they’ve been up in their first 11 games.
“He mixed it up tonight, he hit the three-ball, got into the paint, he was just Swish,” LeBron James (who finished the night with 30 points and nine assists) said. “That was Swish. And we’re gonna need more of that from him coming up.”
“It’s something that we’ve relied on over the last two and a half years,” James continued. “So to have him have a breakout game tonight, especially the way we’ve been struggling at home, it was right on time.”
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