CLEVELAND: J.R. Smith is healthy again and on the move. Whether or not he’ll get that long-awaited invitation to New Orleans remains to be seen, but he isn’t optimistic about it.
Smith made three 3-pointers in Friday’s win over the Detroit Pistons to move into 15th place on the all-time list. If he stays healthy, he should climb into the top 10 all-time, yet he still has never been invited to a 3-point shooting contest during All-Star weekend.
“It’s going to be what it’s going to be,” Smith said.
Among the shooters ranked ahead of him, only Jason Kidd, Vince Carter, Jamal Crawford and Kobe Bryant never competed in a 3-point contest. Smith made a career-high 204 3-pointers last season, and despite his best efforts to rehab his image, Smith said last year he doesn’t believe the NBA wants him anywhere near All-Star weekend because of his reputation.
“You know they don’t want me there,” Smith told the Beacon Journal last season. “You know they don’t want me part of All-Star festivities.”
Smith returned to the lineup Friday after missing three games with a sore right ankle. He injured it when he landed wrong on his foot after leaping for a rebound in the win at Washington last week. Even with their best shooter missing three games, the Cavs remain among the best 3-point shooting teams in the NBA.
“I think we obviously can do higher,” Smith said. “We still haven’t shot the way we were supposed to with Mike [Dunleavy], Channing [Frye], myself at times. Ky [Kyrie Irving] has shot the ball pretty well so far. Bron [LeBron James] has picked it up. But I think the rest of us, we got to do a better job. If we start hitting some of the shots we’re supposed to hit some of those games that we played earlier that were a little too close to call, it will be a bigger lead.”
Coach Tyronn Lue has been waiting for the Cavs to put a full game together and believed they finally did in Friday’s beatdown of the Pistons, primarily because it was the Cavs’ best defensive effort of the season.
“This is the best we’ve played all year as far as close to 48 minutes,” James said.
As for Smith (1,706 career 3s), moving past Dirk Nowitzki is the first of a few names he should pass this season. Next up is Dale Ellis (1,719), Peja Stojakovic (1,760) and Rashard Lewis (1,787). Kobe Bryant ranks 11th (1,827) and Chauncey Billups is 10th (1,830).
Smith has enough time to get by all of them this season, although Steph Curry entered Saturday just 60 3s behind Smith and will likely pass him at some point this season.
Smith just turned 31 and is under contract for the next few years. As long as he stays healthy and productive, Smith has a chance at finishing as one of the top five 3-point shooters of all time.
“I’ve always considered myself as one of the best shooters but to actually have the numbers to back it up, I mean, it’s something I rarely think about. Especially when I see [LeBron] passing everybody every night,” Smith said. “I guess you stick around long enough and make enough shots, you pass somebody.”
Jason Lloyd can be reached at jlloyd@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Cavs blog at www.ohio.com/cavs. Follow him on Twitter www.twitter.com/JasonLloydABJ.