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J.R. Smith Airballed A Free Throw And Got Ignored By A Bunch Of Kids Last Night

Overall, the Knicks had a good night last night. They dominated the Pistons early and cruised to a 99-85 win from there, their fifth straight victory. Carmelo Anthony scored 27, Tyson Chandler had his third straight 20-rebound game, Amar’e Stoudemire continued his strong play off the bench with 20 points – a lot of things are going right for the Knicks.

One key Knick who didn’t have a banner night, though: J.R. Smith. Smith, of course, is a streaky shooter, so he won’t always be hot – nights like last night’s 5-for-15 shooting performance are inevitable once in a while. However, all five of his makes (and 13 of his 15 attempts) were threes, so he still finished with 16 points on his five threes and one free throw. But, uh, about that free throw. He was 1-for-2 from the line. And his miss wasn’t just any miss…

Even though, as the announcers said, this is way, way atypical for J.R. Smith, somehow it’s still a perfect J.R. moment: wacky, enjoyable, always noticeable. And making his coach look like this while he was at it:

Of course, Smith’s other quintessential moment from last night’s game came about because he was less noticeable than he wanted to be. All he wanted to do was get in on a game with some kids…

Poor J.R. Once a shooter, always a shooter.