It took a wake-up call from pop star Rihanna but New York Knicks shooting guard J. R. Smith may finally be out of his shooting slump.
On Thursday, the singer posted a comment on her Instagram account in which she claimed that Smith’s struggles could be attributed to the fact that ““his a** be hungover from clubbing every night during playoffs.”
It didn’t take long for her delete the posting but word had already spread as it tends to these days.
Smith and Rihanna, who used to be an item, were actually spotted at a nightclub on May 7th giving some weight to the pop star’s posting.
The Knicks guard, who has been struggling since being suspended for elbowing Celtics guard Jason Terry in Game 3 of their first-round series, didn’t have his best effort on Thursday night but he did score 13 points while pulling down six rebounds in the Knicks’ season-saving 85-75 win over the Indaina Pacers.
“Still didn’t shoot the best but it always helps coming home and playing in front of these fans,” Smith said. “Hopefully the little bit of rhythm that I did get carries me over.”
After the game reporters asked about the Instagram posting and he handled it quite well.
“I’m not worried about Instagram,” Smith said. “I’m worried about the playoffs.”
His coach, Mike Woodson, was asked about the comments prior to tip-off and he seemed unfazed about the subject.
“I don’t follow that,” he said
“Seriously you guys follow that,” he asked. “I don’t know much about it. I got wind of it when I walked in the building today. But it’s out there. It is what it is. It has no bearing on this game tonight.”
