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Thought We Were Done Talking About J.R. Smith? Not A Chance

Yeah, OK, we talked about his game-ending heroics already, but J.R. Smith provided us so much material in those closing seconds last night that we can’t just stop there. First: the game-winner itself is worth posting again. It really was a great shot. Here it is:

But what’s also worth posting is the shot Smith hit before that. Sure, the fallaway at the buzzer was the (deserved) headline-getter, but the Knicks wouldn’t have been in a positon to win there if Smith hadn’t first hit a jumper with 10.6 seconds left to tie the game at 97. Here’s that one, via CJ Fogler:

There was Smith’s total calm before hitting the game-winner in the huddle, a disposition that seemed to say, “I got this“:

Regrettably, we were unable to locate a gif of Smith’s in-huddle ball-twirling (let us know if you see one), but rest assured, it happened. UPDATE: here is the “ball twirl of supreme confidence” gif, by @TheKnicksWall and with a h/t once again to CJ Fogler:

What we were very, very easily able to locate a gif of: Smith’s reaction to his game-winner. You better believe he did the salsa again. The only question is whether his dancing skills have made any progress in the last few weeks. Decide for yourself:

This is what Smith’s previous salsa looked like. And…this one might have been better. It had more energy behind it. And salsa-ing for a the second time in a month shows a clear commitment to the dance on Smith’s part. If he keeps hitting game-winners and giving himself more practice, we might be worried if we were Victor Cruz – the two might have to fight for salsa supremacy with a dance-off. Actually, there’s no “might” about it; that needs to happen.

Photo via Getty

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