JR Smith denies he was thinking the Cavs had a lead on final possession: I knew we were tied

LeBron James was in utter disbelief as regulation ended stunningly: George Hill made the first of two free throws with 4.7 seconds left after being fouled by Klay Thompson, but when Smith secured the rebound of the second, he dribbled back toward halfcourt instead of shooting, apparently thinking the Cavs had a lead.

With the score tied at 107-107 after George Hill made the first of two free throws, Smith grabbed the rebound off a would-be go-ahead shot in the paint when Hill missed the second one. With 4.5 seconds remaining, Smith immediately put the ball on the floor and dribbled out beyond the 3-point line.

With 2.2 seconds remaining, James changed position from expecting to receive a pass from Smith out beyond the arc, to demonstratively pointing his arm towards the basket and gesturing to Smith to make an offensive move back towards the hoop.
After gesturing to Smith, James made the timeout motion toward the scorer's table. The Cavs indeed had one timeout remaining at the time. With no timeout awarded to Cleveland, Smith made one more dribble toward half court before stopping to pivot and fire a two-handed chest pass to Hill, who was standing in the corner.

Hill caught the pass with 0.5 seconds remaining and his desperation heave, which was blocked by Draymond Green, would not have counted anyway as it left his hands after the buzzer.

Per ESPN, "It was a tie ballgame and we had a timeout," Smith said. "I tried to get enough space because, obviously, KD [Kevin Durant] was standing right there. I tried to get enough space to bring it out to maybe get a shot off. And then I looked over at Bron [LeBron James] and he looked like he was trying to call a timeout. So I stopped. And then the game was over."

After time expired, Smith, with his shoulders shrugged, appeared to tell James, "I thought we were ahead" in a video replay shown during the ABC broadcast of the game. However, when Smith spoke to reporters afterward, he insisted he knew the score of the game



"No, I knew we were tied," Smith said. "It's just I thought we were going to take a timeout because I got the rebound. I'm pretty sure everybody didn't think I was going to shoot it over KD right there. ... I mean, I saw KD standing right next to me. He already had, what, four blocks? So I wasn't trying to be the fifth."