J.R. Smith: 'I don’t care if we played the girls' JV team, we gotta get a W'
New York Knicks shooting guard J.R. Smith got his wish.
The Knicks dropped the Denver Nuggets, 109-93, at home Sunday to snap a seven-game losing skid. It was a game that Smith determined was a must-win affair.
"Honestly, when we’re losing seven in a row, I don’t care who it is," Smith said, according to Adam Zagoria of Sportsnet New York. "I don’t care if we played the girls' JV team, we gotta get a W."
It was a big victory for the Knicks, who have some winnable games the remainder of the month (at home against the Philadelphia 76ers, and on the road against the Minnesota Timberwolves and Oklahoma City Thunder). But the Knicks also face both the Houston Rockets and Dallas Mavericks on the road, while closing out the month at home versus the Miami Heat.
The 3-8 Knicks could find themselves in a fairly sizeable hole if they don't start playing better soon.
Smith provided leading-scorer Carmelo Anthony with some much-needed assistance Sunday. Only five teams are scoring fewer points per game than the Knicks' mark of 93.9, and Anthony hasn't been the reason why - his average of 23.5 a game ranks eighth in the NBA.
The trigger-happy Smith scored 28 on 10-of-16 shooting from the field, while Anthony followed up a season-high 46-point performance by dropping 28 of his own.