JR Smith and LeBron made the meme rounds Thursday.

The Cleveland Cavaliers’ 122-114 Game 1 loss to the Golden State Warriors in Game 1 of the NBA Finals Thursday night had a lot to do with a spectacular miscue from the Cavs’ J.R. Smith. With the score tied in the final seconds of regulation, Smith grabbed an offensive rebound off a George Hill free-throw miss, but then, instead of going for a shot, setting someone else up or even calling timeout to draw up a play, Smith dribbled back towards the halfway line, then threw a last-second pass to Hill, too late to get up a shot. Cleveland then got blown out in overtime, and Twitter blew up with memes based on the spectacular shot of LeBron James yelling at Smith after the final fourth-quarter buzzer. Here are some of the best:

https://twitter.com/LSUcaligrl/status/1002404243259588611

There were plenty of funny tweets without that photo, too, including some from other NBA players:

And plenty from other people:

https://twitter.com/Diane_7A/status/1002406041139793925

https://twitter.com/billbarnwell/status/1002391653775265792

https://twitter.com/LSUcaligrl/status/1002404637092163584

To be fair to him, Smith said afterwards he knew the score and he thought head coach Ty Lue would call the timeout:

But that doesn’t seem to really fit with what he’s doing there. And even if that was the plan, that’s a curious move, especially considering how many chances they had to get up an open shot. And these memes are going to be remembered for a while.

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.

Comments are closed.