- A last-second blunder from J.R. Smith cost the Cleveland Cavaliers the first game of the NBA Finals and wasted an incredible performance by LeBron James.
- James’ frustration was captured on video, and the internet loved the image, which quickly turned into a meme.
The Cleveland Cavaliers lost the first game of the NBA Finals to the Golden State Warriors in an absolutely brutal fashion on Thursday night, with Cavaliers guard J.R. Smith appearing to forget that the score was tied and dribbling the ball out instead of taking what could have been the game-winning shot.
LeBron James, who put forth a Herculean effort to try to drag Cleveland to a win against such a loaded Golden State squad, was quite upset with Smith, as seen above.
Let’s zoom in on that:
Naturally, the internet had jokes ...
https://twitter.com/Jason/status/1002397278794014720?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfwhttps://twitter.com/World_Wide_Wob/status/1002392123658862594?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
when you did all the work for the group project and left it up to the other guy to hand it in and he forgot pic.twitter.com/qttUtK7559
— Brendan Prunty (@BrendanPrunty) June 1, 2018
“We just left a rest stop! Why didn’t you go then?” pic.twitter.com/ExXXogeocs
— David Steele (@David_C_Steele) June 1, 2018
... including, of course, a well-placed reference to the great rap feud of our time.
— Michael Swander (@MichaelSwander) June 1, 2018
After the game, James was in no mood to discuss what happened with Smith, abruptly ending his press conference after repeated questions about whether Smith knew the score.
The Cavs trail the Warriors 1-0 and face a huge emotional hurdle ahead of the next game in the series on Sunday.
More NBA Finals coverage:
- J.R. Smith had a perplexing explanation for his end-of-game blunder that cost the Cavs in Game 1 of the Finals
- Tyronn Lue and the NBA world are baffled by the controversial foul change on LeBron James in Game 1 of the Finals
- LeBron James and the Cavs hit the Warriors with their best shot and had a chance to flip the Finals on its head - and still lost in gut-wrenching fashion
- 'You gotta know the score': Draymond Green comes down hard on Cavaliers' last-second meltdown
- NBA Finals 2018: The best bets to make Cavaliers-Warriors round 4 as entertaining as possible