CLEVELAND -- Cavaliers guard JR Smith capped a bizarre 48 hours in which his soup-throwing suspension captured the collective consciousness of the basketball world with a strong performance Saturday despite a 126-117 loss to the Denver Nuggets.
After not taking a shot in the first half Saturday as the Cavs trailed by 11 points at the break, Smith responded with 19 points on 7-for-12 shooting in the second half, representing his largest scoring output since he put up 20 points on the Minnesota Timberwolves on Feb. 7.
"Just tried to be aggressive," Smith said. "In the first half I came off two dribble handoffs and got one kicked ball and one time they doubled me. So, I mean, I really didn't see much opportunity. In the second half I just figured to hell with it, just be more aggressive. If they double me, try to get around them and then make a play. Just a different mindset, I guess."
There was also some different coaching working in Smith's favor. Cavs coach Tyronn Lue deliberately worked to get his starting shooting guard more involved in the third quarter.
"I just ran a couple plays to start the half to try to get him going and he made some shots to get us going offensively," Lue said.
Smith said his coach's faith in him made it easier to get off the schneid.
"It helped," he said. "Definitely. I mean, I started getting it going a little bit so it definitely helped. I just try to do what I can with the opportunities I do get and the ones that I don't I just try to do a better job on defense."
Smith made seven of his first eight shots in the second half as Cleveland cut what had been a 15-point deficit to one with 2:40 to go.
"We needed it," LeBron James said of Smith after James played all but the final 20 seconds of the second half chasing the win. "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."
With Cleveland continuing to play without its natural No. 2 scoring option in Kevin Love -- he has been sidelined the past four weeks because of a broken left hand -- Smith's stretch was a welcome lift for the Cavs' offense.
"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."
However, Smith went cold down the stretch, going 0-for-3 from 3 in the final 2:10 -- including two missed 3s on the same possession when the Cavs were trailing Denver by four -- and the Nuggets went on an 8-0 spurt from there to blow the game open.
"We come down and have a great look by Swish, misses it, we gets the offensive rebound, he has another one, misses it again and they come down and hit a bucket," James said. "That definitely hurt us."
The Cavs were also hurt by allowing the Nuggets to go 19-for-35 from 3 -- tying the most 3s they've given up to an opponent this season (Houston and Minnesota also hit 19) -- and by what James felt like was an error by the referees that led to the Paul Millsap 3 that preceded the back-to-back 3s that Smith missed.
George Hill was called for a foul on Wilson Chandler with 2:58 left when he applied pressure to Chandler's back, then pulled his arms away when Chandler made his move, causing Chandler to fall to the ground.
"G-Hill's play on Wilson, it was the old pull-chair move," James said. "Sometimes guys have never seen that before. [The referees] felt like he pulled him down and right after that Millsap hits the 3 that put 'em up four."
The loss dropped the Cavs' record to just 2-4 since the All-Star break. Combined with Smith's suspension this week, the shine of the new-look Cavs' 2-0 start after the trade deadline seems to be wearing off.
Is Smith able to put the last couple of days behind him and simply focus on the final 20 games of the season the way he focused on the second half against the Nuggets?
"Yeah, absolutely," Smith said. "Just do what I do. Just come in and work, play with my kids and play 2K. That's about it. I can't really dwell on the past. I've never been that person. So I just look forward to the next day and try to do better every day."
