JR Smith to the Rescue!

He isn't Superman, by any means.

Especially if you ask Shaquille O'Neal, Mr Man of Steel himself.

But every dog has his day.

JR Smith was that dude last night in an impressive win against the No 1 seed in the Eastern Conference.

While the Big 3 has been downgraded to a Big 1½ due to lingering injuries that Kyrie Irving just can't shake, Smith decided to step up at a pivotal moment.

The Game 1 victor seems to always set the tone, and in this case, it was harsh for the favorites. The Cleveland Cavaliers stomped on the throats of the Atlanta Hawks, on the road, in a hostile environment.

You can thank the Cavaliers' sixth man for that win: 28 points. 8-12 from beyond the arc.

When you ring up eight three pointers on the road, you're doing something right, and Smith's productivity was major, given that the rest of the bench yielded a pathetic goose egg in points.

And it beats the hell out of his specialty when he was with the Knicks.

In this life, Smith was aggressive offensively and, more importantly, accurate.

Of course, don't discount what LeBron James did. With Irving still recovering from a broken lower body and at 60% max, James tallied 31 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists. A true stat-stuffer, he showed up and played with a sense of purpose.

Three wins away from a fifth consecutive NBA finals, James needs the Robin to his Batman to heal.

But more importantly, the role players need to perform just like the havoc Smith put on those pesky Hawks.

In other words, they need to do less of this: