CLEVELAND: J.R. Smith interrupted a question with a question and his irreverent response perfectly summed up his enthusiasm over the long-distance firestorm he'd just ignited.
"We shot 38 3s? Damn!" Smith said Wednesday night, drawing laughter.
The Cavaliers tied an NBA record for most 3-pointers made in a playoff game, hitting 20 in a 107-90 romp over the Detroit Pistons in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference first-round series in Quicken Loans Arena.
Smith had a big hand in sending the Cavs to The Palace of Auburn Hills for Friday night's Game 3 with a 2-0 lead. Smith hit 7 of 11 from beyond the arc, 0 for 2 inside it, and finished with 21 points.
"Swish played a great game," teammate Kevin Love said of Smith. "When he’s firing on all cylinders like that we are tough to beat because it spreads the floor for Kyrie and (LeBron). When they play downhill they can find everybody else."
It seemed like redemption for Smith, who struggled in Sunday's Game 1 and in the NBA Finals last June.
In the opener against the Pistons, Smith connected on just 2 of 7 3s and 3 for 9 overall. He started the postseason just like he finished, connecting on 24 of 77 from the field, 15 of 51 from 3-point range, as the Cavs saw the Golden State Warriors capture the championship in six games.
Smith admitted there was a sense of relief, considering his recent playoff history.
"Whenever I play well, there’s a sense of relief," he said. "If I don’t play up to the stature that I feel like I should be playing, I’ll just be in the gym and work harder and that’s what I did."
But Smith had no detailed explanation of what went right in Game 2.
"I was open, so I shot the ball," he said. "It’s kind of simple for me. Obviously, I have some great teammates who are willing to make the open pass. I’m just fortunate to be in the situation to make them."
James said when he sees his teammates getting hot outside, he reminds himself to keep attacking. Not only to keep the Cavs from having all five bombing from long range, but to collapse the defense to give the shooters more space.
"When you've got guys that are making shots, it’s a conscious effort for me to not fall into it," James said. "I have to be the one to say, ‘Ok, you need to get to the rim. You need to continue to put pressure on the defense,’ because I don’t want to add to the burden of us just casting 3-point shots. I did take four of them tonight, but I was still living in the paint.
"That's always been my mindset. We have shooters. They are designated snipers and that’s what we got them for and I’m not one of them. I'm more like a tank or something like that.”
Pistons center Andre Drummond said Smith's barrage was demoralizing.
"Everybody knows that when J.R. Smith gets hot he's going to knock three or four down in a row," Drummond said. "It was a little deflating seeing he was taking those 3s that were contested and was making them."
Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy didn't agree.
"I don’t think so. When you’re losing, it’s always a little demoralizing. It really doesn’t matter how," Van Gundy said.
But he gave the Cavs credit for their performance.
"I don’t care if you’re left by yourself, 20 of 38 is pretty good 3-point shooting," Van Gundy said. "You have to give them a lot of credit for that. But I didn’t think our closeouts were good, and I didn’t think we did a very good job of finding shooters in transition. There’s no question we could’ve done a better job, but they shot the ball very, very well."
The Cavs' 20 3s tied the NBA playoff record held by the Seattle SuperSonics (May 6, 1996), Dallas Mavericks (May 8, 2011) and Golden State Warriors (May 25, 2015).
Also contributing for the Cavs were Kyrie Irving (4 3s), Kevin Love (3), LeBron James (2), while Richard Jefferson, Matthew Dellavedova, Channing Frye and Jordan McRae had one each. McRae connected with 27 seconds remaining.
"Great to be a part of history when you’re going along a path that you’re trying to accomplish," said James, sitting alongside Smith. "Along that way, when things happen like that, you never take it for granted. This guy right here can tell you about the lift he gave us.”
Smith's situation is vastly different now than it was in The Finals, when Irving and Love were sidelined with serious injuries. Now with those two healthy, the pressure on Smith should be lessened.
"Pressure makes diamonds, so I don’t really look at it like that," Smith said. "We've got some great guys and if they go down, the next man up. We can’t sit here and dwell on the past. We've got guys healthy, got guys ready to play. So if they go down, next man up and if they don’t, we've all just got to make plays.”