Anyone who stayed up late to watch Game One of the NBA Finals on Thursday night is probably feeling the pain of LeBron James.
The Sixers' top free agent target dropped a career-best 51 points, defying expectations against the Warriors, only to watch teammate J.R. Smith apparently forget the score after a crucial rebound in the closing seconds of regulation. Smith later denied that he was unaware the game was tied.
The Cavs got torched in overtime, coughing up an improbable opportunity to steal home court advantage.
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NBA Players and fans immediately pounced on Smith on Twitter, including Philadelphia's own Joel Embiid. There's a fierce collection of memes growing out of this disaster (this will help explain the Hennessy references, since Smith was considered a partier during his time with the New York Knicks).
If there's any silver lining here, that blunder by Smith was perfectly timed for the 2018 edition of NBA Mean Tweets on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!"
This year comes with a pretty solid crop of insults, including a few specially made for Ben Simmons, Charles Barkley and Stephen A. Smith.
Miraculously, none of them were sent by Bryan Colangelo or his wife.