Tyronn Lue says post-shootaround incident led to JR Smith suspension
Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Tyronn Lue is offering a few details on guard JR Smith’s team-imposed suspension.
The Cavs announced on Thursday that Smith will be suspended for one game due to “detrimental conduct.” He will be serving it during Thursday evening’s contest against the Philadelphia 76ers.
Addressing reporters after the news broke, Lue said that a post-shootaround incident led to Smith’s suspension, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN.
Tyronn Lue said “something happened after shootaround” today that led to JR Smith’s one-game suspension. Lue said Smith will be back at practice Friday and be back in the starting lineup on Saturday. Rodney Hood will start tonight.
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) March 1, 2018
McMenamin also reports that the ban was “from a team-related issue [and] nothing off the court,” citing a team source.
Smith, 32, is having one of the worst years of his career with 8.3 points per game on 39.2 percent shooting from the field. He has still managed to start 56 of a possible 60 games for the Cavs so far this season however.
The veteran guard was nursing some ill will earlier in the year as well, and now this just adds to what has been a challenging 2017-18 campaign for him.
