Cavs to Sit J.R. Smith to Start Game Three in Favor of Iman Shumpert?

After another awful performance shooting on Sunday night in Oakland, the Cavs are looking at some lineup changes regarding shooting specialist J.R. Smith.

Smith shot the ball only twice Sunday, and missed both attempts, finishing with no points in the Cavs second straight loss to Golden State.

His minutes dropped from 28 to 14 in the loss, and with Smith out coach Ty Lue went more with Iman Shumpert, who played 22 minutes in the loss.

ESPN’s report seems to indicate that Shumpert will get the nod in the starting lineup on Wednesday in game three, now a must win for the Cavs.

Shumpert is a better defender than Smith, and after watching the Warriors go off for 40 points in the first quarter of the eventual win for Golden State, it would be smarter for the Cavs to try and slow down the Warriors earlier in the game.

Lue seemed to point to having to have much better defense if this team is going to get on track and get back in the series on Wednesday.

“I think that having awareness, can’t relax, can’t fall asleep,” Lue said of the teams’ defense.

“This team, their offense is constant movement, so you got to be locked in, you can’t take a peek somewhere and lose your man, so they make you pay. And they have a lot of guys who can shoot the basketball, have a lot of guys who are great passers, so you got to be alert at all times.”

Having Shumpert is there to start the game might be a better way to get the team off to a better start against Golden State.