Cavs not playing blame game after J.R. Smith snafu

Coach counting on feisty forward to bounce back in second game, writes Scott Stinson.

Tyronn Lue said he spoke to J.R. Smith after his puzzling blunder at the end of Game 1, but the Cleveland Cavaliers coach did not provide any clarity on whether his guard knew the score of the game — it was tied — when he dribbled away from the basket instead of trying a game-winning shot.

“Yes, we’ve talked, but I’m not going to share that conversation last night,” Lue said on a media conference call Friday afternoon. “It’s a tough play. If J.R. Smith doesn’t get the offensive rebound, they might get the rebound, call timeout and win in regulation.”

Immediately following the game, Lue said Smith thought the Cavs were up a point, and cameras caught Smith appearing to say the same thing to his baffled teammates. Later, though, he said he knew the game was tied and he was holding the ball in anticipation of a timeout.

Lue said even with the confusion at the end of regulation, Smith deserved some credit for giving the Cavs a chance to win in overtime, even if they ended up on the wrong end of a 10-point deficit after the extra frame.

“So that’s behind us. It’s over. There’s nothing you can do about it now. We’ve got to focus in on Game 2.”

The Cavs coach said Smith would start in Game 2.

“J.R. can shake off anything, and when everybody tends to count J.R. out, that’s when he comes through. So he’s definitely going to start again.”

Neither team practised on Friday, with the next game not until Sunday, and Smith was not made available to media.

SPIRITS REMAIN HIGH

Lue, and guard George Hill, the only Cleveland player on the conference call, took mild umbrage at suggestions their spirit might be broken after such a tough loss, which included an overturned foul call involving LeBron James with 30 seconds left and the Smith mishap, spoiling an incredible 51-point effort from James.

“Listen, we’re not broken, all right? We lost a game,” Lue said. “You’ve got to win four in the series. We understand that. It was a tough game for us. We played well enough to win, but we didn’t. Now we’ve got to move on. The guys’ confidence is not shaken. We’ll see what we need to do and how we need to perform to win. We have the blueprint, so now we have to execute.”

Hill said his teammates are still confident. “I don’t think any of us are demoralized. I think maybe you guys have us more demoralized than we have ourselves,” he said.

HILL LAMENTS LATE MISS

Lost in the controversy over the changed foul call and Smith’s play was he only had the ball in his hands because Hill clanked a free-throw attempt that would have given the Cavaliers a onepoint lead.

Hill said Friday it was the toughest loss of his career.

“I feel like I cost our team the win. And I dealt with that last night,” Hill said. “As a player, competitive guy, put in a situation to help my team win a game, and I didn’t come through,” he said. “But I have great teammates who have been in my ear, even last night and this morning, telling me to forget about it, continue to just focus on the next game and don’t let it linger.”