National Basketball Association

J.R. Smith suspended two games for hitting Jae Crowder

Published Apr. 27, 2015 9:54 p.m. ET

foxsports

As if the day following the Cavaliers finishing the sweep over the Boston Celtics could not get any worse, the NBA has announced that J.R. Smith has been suspended two games. This coming after the news that Kevin Love will miss the entire upcoming Eastern Conference semifinal series with a dislocated shoulder.

During Sunday’s game and after an already very physical couple of quarters between the Cavaliers and Celtics, Smith backhanded the Celtics' Jae Crowder while boxing him out for a rebound, hitting him directly in the face and knocking Crowder to the ground. Smith was given a Flagrant 2 and was therefore ejected from the game. Following the backhand to his face, Crowder sprained his knee on his fall, causing him to not return for the rest of the game.

Whether intentional or not, the NBA has obviously taken notice of Smith’s actions and has forced him to miss the first two games of Cleveland’s next series against either the Chicago Bulls or Milwaukee Bucks. The absence of Smith and Love will force the Cavaliers to play with two new starters for their first two games of the series. These losses hurt the Cavs' ability to spread out the opponent and allow LeBron James and Kyrie Irving to have bigger driving lanes. It will be interesting to see how coach David Blatt and company will maneuver through these two games without two starters.