Although his offensive production hasn’t been as gaudy, J.R. Smith has silently been as valuable this postseason for the Cleveland Cavaliers as he was during last year’s magical championship run.
The Cleveland Cavaliers haven’t matched the Golden State Warriors in going 12-0 in the playoffs in their conference. Whoopty doo. The Warriors also had the best regular season in NBA history in 2015-2016. We all know what happened in the Finals.
Anyway, the Cavs really haven’t been as good defensively as they were last season. That said, they’ve been better in the last two rounds. Much of that has to do with the unselfishness of the aforementioned J.R. Smith.
At first glance, he hasn’t really jumped off the TV set like Kyrie Irving or LeBron James. During last year’s postseason, Smith was drilling stepback threes left and right, and skipping his way down the floor whenever the opportunity presented itself. This postseason hasn’t resulted in the same carefree offensive production, but Smith has affected the game more in different ways.
He’s played the all-around game, and it’s really helped the Cavs stars concentrate more on other areas, such as scoring.