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What Happened Last Night: Thunder Sneak Past Knicks, Tiger’s Winning Some Golf Thing

You’re probably here because you didn’t watch sports on TV last night. Which means you hate J.R. Smith. And last night was a bad night to hate J.R. Smith.

J.R. Smith. nearly carried New York past Oklahoma City

This game should not have been as close as it was. J.R. Smith carried the Knicks with 36 points, which mostly included contested three-pointer after contested three-pointer and stepback jumper after stepback jumper. Except the game’s final play, with New York trailing 95-94 and the ball in J.R. Smith’s hands with eight seconds left, didn’t go as planned. Russell Westbrook cut off any path to the basket, forcing Smith to spin, fade, and launch a contested 20-footer that hit back iron.

Still, the Knicks can be proud of their effort without Carmelo Anthony, who has been nursing a knee injury. Throughout the entire first half, it seemed as if Oklahoma City was on the precipice of blowing the game wide open, but a flurry of threes and defensive stops held it together. And then, finally, the Knicks briefly took the lead in the 4th quarter. But Kevin Durant’s free throws down the stretch, coupled with a handful of squandered New York possessions, gave Oklahoma City the one-point win.

Tiger Woods is winning some golf tournament thing.

The WGC-Cadillac Championship at Doral. Yeah, Doral. That’s the one. Tiger Woods shot a six-under 66, including nine birdies to take a share of the lead with Bubba Watson, Graeme McDowell, Sergio Garcia and Fredrik Jacobson. The problem with golf is that there are four rounds, and this was only round one; so it will take more of Tiger Woods being, say, good, for this to work out. Rory McIlroy, meanwhile, shot a one-over 73, and just never seemed to be able to get it going. His tooth must still hurt.