J.R. Smith Getting it Done at Point Guard
Iverson, Smith Lead Nuggets Past Sluggish Cavs -122•110
Color me impressed. No color
me shocked. J.R. Smith
has performed much better
than I was expecting him
to at the point guard position.
It took him a couple of
games to get a handle on
it, but he has responded
to widespread doubts about
his ability to "grow
up and become and NBA professional".
He has responded with somewhat
of a fury. The past two
games, both of them lopsided
Nugget victories, J.R.
has been able to appear
near dominant at times
against the opposition.
Granted, both Cleveland and
Indiana suffer from an obvious
lack of a legitimate point
guard, and I suppose anybody
would look good when Damon
Jones is guarding them. But
all that side, and you come
back to the fact that at least
J.R. has not played to the
level of his competition. Will
he be able to continue a controlled
style of play when he has
actual defenders in his back
pocket? Doubtful. At least
to this level of dominance.
J.R. Smith was not the
only Nuggets guard who was
impressive in the 122-100 victory
over the Cleveland Cavaliers,
Allen Iverson was electric,
racking up a season high 37
points. It was even more impressive
because Allen Iverson, amazingly,
got 37 points almost quietly.
I know, how can you say a guy
had a quite 35+ point night.
Well you can if the guy who
got you those points did so
on less than 24 attempts from
the floor. Allen was taking
solid shots and knocking them
down. Curse me to say it, I
think that was Allen's best,
most all solid, all around,
outing as a member of the Nuggets,
to this point. He was very
impressive. Carmelo was impressive
a couple of times when he showed
a defensive willingness to
bump with LeBron James. Its
been said, and I feel that
it was more evident last night
than any other: If Carmelo wants to,
he can learn to become
a top notch physical defender.
Will that day ever come when
Melo adopts a more professional
defensive work ethic, again,
its something that we will
have to wait and see what happens.
In a perfect world, I would
like to believe that I am not
asking too much of Melo to
play as physical on the defensive
end as he does on the offensive
end, game in - game out. Maybe
it is asking to much. But I
get greedy when I see glimpses.
Take things like Melo's improving
shooting range. I like the
willingness I see in Melo to
be an -at times- aggressive
three point threat. I love
getting greedy when I see flashes.
Makes me start thinking that
we can run with the best of
um'.
