Where Amazing Happens - J.R.Smith against Bulls(Feb 22)

Feb 22, 2008
Bulls against Nuggets at home.

J.R.Smith:
43 points
Made 8 of 14 3pt attempts. 7 straight in the 4th quarter, all with hands on his face.

Here's the full play-by-play.(Look at the 4th quarter tab):
http://www.nba.com/games/20080222/DENCH ... lay.html#4

You should have watched him in the 4th quarter.

Wow, amazing!

too bad they still lost the game

Every once in a while a player like Smith will have some huge game like this. Its not that unusual. I remember a few years back Richie Frahm scoring 31 out of the blue.

I'd agree with this if he can keep this up for 82 games....which he probably will not. Even Kobe can't.

j.r has a good future ahead of him. i know he makes dumb decisions but hey he's 21-22? cmon you cant compare J.R with a guy like richie frahm

He had a similar game against the Heat last year where he made 7 threes in the first half. It looked like he was going to challenge the record but cooled off in the second.

On a similar (but not so impressive) note, Billy Thomas put up 11 threes in 19 minutes against the Wizards making three of them, fresh off being signed to a 10 day contract. Guess he's making the most of the opportunity.

Nice performance and all, but honestly, does he do anything else other than chuck 3s and dunk? It seems like he has no midrange game, is sloppy with the ball at times, and is bad on defense. If I'm wrong, please someone tell me better about his game.

I saw the game and he could've wind up with 8/10. Instead he threw up ill-advised shots in the last 2 mins which cost them the game.

Nice performance and all, but honestly, does he do anything else other than chuck 3s and dunk? It seems like he has no midrange game, is sloppy with the ball at times, and is bad on defense. If I'm wrong, please someone tell me better about his game.

Yes, he's always been like a no teammate. And yes, he's a real ball hog.

But this performance was amazing. His hands were sooooooooooo hot.

Im happy that the hornets traded him

one of those moments, eh Andrew

i think the last few minutes in the 4th, he successfully took out the rest of the nuggets players on offense by coming up the court and chucking

If I were a Nugs fan everytime JR Smith got hot I would just turn off the TV. Once he hits a couple, he's not stopping any time soon.

its pretty sad really. i dont get why coaches wont take a player out for shooting too much. even if you are making the shots sometimes your team will just either A. give up on you or B. get cold so when you do need them they cant step up

I watched the impressive game of JR. He was just on-fire, men..

43 pts in just 33 mins.. amazing.

one of those moments, eh Andrew

Indeed.

its pretty sad really. i dont get why coaches wont take a player out for shooting too much. even if you are making the shots sometimes your team will just either A. give up on you or B. get cold so when you do need them they cant step up

It depends on the situation. If no one else can buy a basket and someone who isn't necessarily the star of the team - like a JR Smith - heats up and starts knocking down shot after shot, it makes sense to go to him as long as he's feeling it, at least until the rest of the team starts going and the opposition are back on their heels.

i understand that but at the same time, when a player like smith catches fire its something that does not happen often, so these kind of players tend to constantly jack up shots as a way to increase thier own stats and completly forget about the team, even after thier hot hand has cooled

Absolutely, it's not a sound strategy to use game-in, game-out. However, I think there'll always be a place in the game for players like Smith who can catch fire and cut into a deficit or on some occasions recapture the lead, with the rest of the team taking care of business from there, say once that player goes back to the bench.

Smith and the nuggets are underachieving...

The funny thing is, in any other year they'd be in the race for a top four seed in the West with their current record at this stage of the season, certainly likely to end up around fifth or sixth. At this stage, they could conceivably end up winning around 60% of their games as they've done so far and miss out on the postseason. Yao's injury might have opened the door for them to get back into the top eight though.