Stephen A. Smith: ‘The Cleveland Cavaliers were an absolute disgrace in the second half’
The ESPN sportscaster had some fiery words for the Cavs.
Sportscaster Stephen A. Smith was not impressed with the Cavaliers for the vast majority of Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals.
“What we saw from the Cleveland Cavaliers in the second half was an absolute embarrassment,” Smith said in a postgame interview on ESPN.
Despite a red hot start by LeBron James, Cleveland could not maintain its 11-point advantage for very long against the Celtics. Boston mounted a mini comeback at the end of the first half and picked up right where they left off to start the third quarter. The Celtics went on to win, 107-94, and take a 2-0 series lead.
Smith called Cleveland’s second-half performance “an absolute disgrace.”
“They gave a lackluster effort,” he said. “They played no defense whatsoever.”
Things weren’t any better on the offensive end of the floor, either.
“When you take into account that your starting backcourt of George Hill and J.R. Smith were outscored, 41-3, by [Terry] Rozier and Jaylen Brown, that tells you the story that you really, really need to know,” Smith said. “LeBron James and the Cavaliers are getting absolutely no production from the backcourt offensively.”
J.R. Smith followed up his underwhelming Game 1 performance — where he scored four points on 2-for-9 shooting — with an even more dispiriting outing Tuesday. The guard logged zero points on 0-for-7 shooting. Fellow guard George Hill was equally pitiful, scoring just three points in 33 minutes. The majority of Cleveland’s points unsurprisingly came from James and Kevin Love, but even a triple-double from James and double-double from Love wasn’t enough to fuel the Cavs.
“Kevin Love is helping LeBron out as best as he possibly can, considering the circumstances, but he’s going up against a bunch of rough riders — particularly of the young variety,” Smith said. “There’s only much he can do unless LeBron facilitates for him.”
Smith — who said he doesn’t care about the impressive stat line — advises James utilize his size to his advantage and pound the paint.
“You’re plus-260 pounds,” he said. “Most of the dudes that are going up against you are undersized and cannot hang with you. For some reason, he spent the vast majority of the game after the first quarter shooting fallaway jump shots. That’s not going to cut it.”
Even though he doesn’t blame James for the loss, Smith said the Cavaliers are still going to need more from him if the team continues to operate with the same “level of ineptitude” from the other players on the court.
“You didn’t get it from anybody,” he said. “It was an embarrassing effort by the Cavaliers in the second half.”
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