Coincidence or not, the stats reveal Cleveland Cavaliers free agent guard J.R. Smith plays better in games immediately after his favorite rapper, Lil' Wayne, releases new projects.

While causality in sports can often be debated, the hard numbers themselves cannot.

For example, one might wonder exactly why DeAndre Jordan decided to return to the Clippers. Anything could have happened in his house that day. We'll probably never know. But we cannot debate the facts, which as reported show that there were around $88 million dollars on the table from Los Angeles over the next four years waiting for him. We can wonder exactly why Chris Paul, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade got on that banana boat, but we can't debate that all three of them are in that photo.

So, if you follow that thought process, a new study done over at fledgling site HashtagImportant.com by Kenny Ducey (who last season did a riveting report on Carmelo Anthony's stats depending on his choice of postgame hat, results somewhat inconclusive) reveals that Cleveland Cavaliers free agent guard J.R. Smith plays better in games immediately after his favorite rapper, Lil' Wayne, releases new projects.

The numbers here do not lie.

Via HashtagImportant.com

Very little has been consistent about J.R. Smith's career; J.R. Smith plays consistently better in games following Lil' Wayne's album release dates. Two statements to ponder.

• J.R. Smith takes podium selfie after advancing to Finals

There's no guarantee J.R. listened to these albums in the time periods containing their release and his games, but the averages versus career averages certainly point to a correlation. Ducey notes that Smith's 32-point game in 2013 was followed by games of 35 and 37 points, after the release of Wayne's I Am Not A Human Being II.

The only potential flaw here? Smith stated Weezy was his favorite back in 2012. But though his opinion could have changed since then, if J.R. and Wayne can survive Rebirth together, all bets are off.

- Jeremy Woo