SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Super-sub J.R. Smith continued his West-Coast hot hand last night, coming off the bench to almost lead the Knicks to their biggest comeback win of the season before they fell short, 106-105, against the Kings.
Smith, who was nearly unstoppable on the three-game road trip, scored a season-high 28 points to spearhead the Knicks’ oh-so-close comeback attempt and capped off a dominant second half that fell just short. The Knicks trailed the Kings by 27 points late in the second quarter before Smith and company turned their fortunes around by outscoring Sacramento 55-35 in the final two quarters.
“We fought back tremendously in the second half,” Smith said. “I wish we could have turned the switch on earlier instead of turning it on too late.”
The Knicks comeback ended with a thud after a frenetic final Kings’ possession lead to a 3-point basket by James Johnson at the buzzer.
“We messed up the first half, that’s where it really took place,” Smith said. “You can’t have halves like that where a team scores 71 points in 24 minutes. That just can’t happen.”
Smith finished with 11-for-25 shooting and had seven rebounds and five assists in 43 minutes. He provided a much-needed spark for a Knicks lineup depleted of their primary players — such as Carmelo Anthony, Raymond Felton Amar’e Stoudemire and Rasheed Wallace — due to injuries.
The game-high 28 points by Smith comes on the heels of a team-high 27 points, including a buzzer beater, he buried against the Suns on Wednesday in a 99-97 victory and a 25-point performance against the Lakers on Tuesday, a 100-94 loss. It was the first time in Smith’s career that he has logged three consecutive 25-point efforts.
Smith’s heroics were huge for the Knicks in December. He hit a 21-foot jump-shot as the horn sounded — his second buzzer-beating shot of the month — to give the Knicks the two-point win at Phoenix.
“I’ve seen [the winning shot against the Suns] two or three times on replay,” Smith said. “Honestly, it was a really tough shot. It looked tougher on video than it really was shooting it. I got a lot of feedback on it. Everybody loved it.”
The knockout blow against the Suns was Smith’s second buzzer-beater of the month. He made a similar 18-foot jumper in a 100-98 win at Charlotte on Dec. 5.
“The left side of the court is one of my best shots,” Smith said. “I’m just trying to do what the team needs me to do, honestly. We are still 1-2 in those games so we’ve got to play better.”
Unfortunately for the Knicks, the buzzer-beater last night came by the Kings’ Johnson, not Smith.
“It’s a bad feeling,” Smith said of the way the Knicks lost. “It [leaves] a bad taste in your mouth.”