If you didn't watch Game 1 of the NBA Finals, you definitely missed out on a good game. The game went into overtime after being tied 107-107 in the 4th quarter. Even after J.R Smith's blunder during the last seconds of the game, there was still hope for the Cavalier's to win Game 1 at the Golden State Warrior's arena. However, things quickly took a turn for the worse and the Warriors ran away with the game for a final score of 124-114.
Now, if you didn't hear about J.R Smith's mistake or see the hundreds of memes and videos posted on social media sites, I'll give you a recap of what happened. The Cavs and the Warriors were tied, and George Hill was shooting two free throws, made the first one and missed the second one. J.R Smith then went in towards the basket and got the offensive rebound and ran with the ball to attempt to run out the clock. This would have been a smart play if the Cavs were up, but they were tied and desperately needed to make another shot to win the game. After the play clock winded down to 0, you could see J.R Smith telling Lebron James that he thought that the Cavs were up by 1 point and that is why he didn't shoot or pass the ball to one of his teammates.
Although this mistake was most definitely an epic mistake that will be remembered forever, all of the blame for the Cavs loss in Game 1 cannot be put solely upon J.R Smith. He averaged the same amount of points that he normally does when he plays for the amount of time that he did, so he didn't even have a bad game, just an average game. Sure, if he had passed the ball or made the basket the Cavs could have won, but they had other opportunities in which they could have one the game.
If George Hill would have made the second free throw, then the Cavs would have had the opportunity to play good defense and stop the Warriors from scoring in the last few seconds of the game. If the refs wouldn't have called Lebron James for a blocking foul late in the fourth quarter, which clearly was not a blocking foul nor was he close to being in the restricted area, then the ball would have been turned over to the Cavs. In The Last Two Minute Report, the NBA also stated that the refs didn't catch Draymond Green's lane violation during George Hill's free throws, which would have allowed him to shoot a new free throw and given the Cavs a chance to take the lead.
So before you go blaming the Cavaliers Game 1 loss all on J.R. Smith, you should review the referees officiating of the game first.
