J.R. Smith might have to wear a shirt for the next 4-6 weeks. And maybe even a suit and a tie.
The Cleveland Cavaliers wing will undergo surgery on the right thumb he injured in the first half of Tuesday’s overtime victory against the Milwaukee Bucks. ESPN.com’s Brian Windhorst first reported the news on Wednesday, and the team soon confirmed a troubling report for the first-place Cavs.
The projected recovery timeline for similar injuries could sideline Smith until February.
Smith suffered the injury at the end of the first half against the Bucks. X-rays taken at the arena in Milwaukee were inconclusive, according to a team statement on Tuesday night. Smith returned with his team to Cleveland for further tests in advance of Wednesday’s home game against the Bucks. Those tests, conducted by Dr. Richard Parker at Cleveland Clinic Sports Health, revealed a fractured right thumb. The team said a “return to play timeline will be established following the surgery.”
According to Windhorst, that timeline is expected to be somewhere between four and six weeks.
Smith has averaged 8.6 points and 2.1 rebounds this season as the starting shooting guard for the defending champions, and his playoff contributions this past spring were vital to their title run. The Cavs are slightly better both offensive and defensively with Smith on the floor, per NBA.com/stats, and it’s difficult to tell how much of a burden his absence will place on an already thin backcourt.
After a lengthy negotiation, Smith signed a four-year, $57 million contract extension two weeks before the start of this season. The 31-year-old has already missed five games with knee and ankle problems in 2016-17, and his 33.7 field goal percentage is the lowest of his career. Still, his absence could spell trouble for the Cavs, who lead the Toronto Raptors by one game in the Eastern Conference standings.
Smith has missed just 11 games since Cleveland traded for him in January 2015. The Cavs are 8-3 in those games, including a record of 4-1 both this season and last. They have made two straight trips to the NBA Finals with Smith complementing stars LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love. The Cavaliers have not been without Smith since the early days of their Big Three, when they acquired him during a stretch of nine losses in 10 games that left Cleveland searching for answers as a .500 team.
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