By JOSH NEWMAN
Special to ZAGSBLOG
As if there wasn’t already enough negative attention surrounding Knicks shooting guard J.R. Smith, now comes this.
The Sixth Man of the Year is being listed as questionable for tonight’s Game 3 against the Indiana Pacers with what the team is calling an illness. Head coach Mike Woodson said Saturday morning after shootaround at Bankers Life Fieldhouse that Smith, who stayed back at the team hotel instead of attending shootaround, had a 102-degree fever.
Woodson went on to say that even if Smith does play this evening in the pivotal Game 3 of a series that is tied, 1-1, that he’s not expecting much.
Meanwhile, Carmelo Anthony seemed all but sure Smith would go despite the illness.
“J.R. is going to play tonight,” Anthony told reporters in Indianapolis. “Yeah. We’re going to get him right. That’s what we’ve got team doctors for. That’s why there’s medicine and things like that. He’ll be all right, hopefully.”
Following a career regular season, Smith has struggled in the last four postseason games after he was ejected from Game 3 against the Boston Celtics. In that game, he was tossed with the Knicks up 19 midway through the fourth quarter after he elbowed Boston Celtics guard Jason Terry. Smith was assessed a Flagrant 2, a one-game suspension and hasn’t been the same since.
In the four games since he missed Game 4, Smith is shooting 26 percent from the floor, 29 percent from 3-point range and is averaging just 13.0 points per game.
His recent on-court struggles are in addition to new questions about how Smith handles himself on the floor. A noted enthusiast of the New York City social scene, Smith was seen at the 40/40 Club late Saturday night with the Knicks set to play Game 1 against the Pacers on Sunday afternoon.
After the Knicks’ Game 2 win on Tuesday evening, Smith was seen with singer Rihanna at a club in SoHo. That came after a miserable 3-for-15 shooting effort.
If Smith cannot play or is limited, that likely means more playing time for Pablo Prigioni and Iman Shumpert. Prigioni has been solid in these playoffs, offering a steady hand out top in 22.1 minutes over eight postseason games entering Game 3.
Shumpert has begun to show signs of the player he was before he blew out his knee last May. The second-year guard has scored in double figures in each of his last five games, including a playoff career-high 17 points on 6-for-9 shooting in the Game 6 clincher against the Celtics. He is coming off a 15-point effort on 7-for-11 shooting in Game 2 on Tuesday.
