Josh Smith Still Taunting Heat

MIAMI -- There were apologies, no I-shouldn't-have-done it tone in his voice Friday morning when Hawks forward Josh Smith was asked again about his late-game showboating Wednesday that clearly riled the Miami Heat. In a series that has grown both increasingly physical and combative, Smith was happy to fuel the fire before Game 6 begins Friday night.

Smith used Atlanta's lopsided Game 5 victory and a breakaway layup to demonstrate his crowd-pleasing, between-the-legs dunk in front of the Heat bench with just under four minutes remaining. Smith missed the dunk, disappointing the Atlanta crowd and ticking off the beaten-down Heat players. And their memories are good.

Miami's Dwyane Wade called it, "very insulting.'' Smith said Friday he didn't care what Wade thinks.

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"Whatever they want to use as motivation to pump up their players, that's cool,'' Smith said. "They can use it however they want. I think people are making too much of it. It's a dunk I can usually make. They (Heat) can use it any way they want.''

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra made light of Smith's dunk in a post-game press conference, said Friday morning that his biggest concern was making sure his players responded to Atlanta's more-physical style of play.

The Heat, trailing 3-2, are facing an elimination game at home.

"Forget all the schemes. We have to handle the mano-a-mano matchups much better, with more pride than we did,'' Spoelstra said. "This is becoming more and more physical. That's the playoffs. The recent history for us is that is usually leads to some kind of battle, combat between the lines. Both teams understand what's at stake and both teams want it.''

The Hawks, who lead 3-2 in the series, will be without Al Horford (ankle) and Marvin Williams (sprained right wrist). Wade has been struggling with his own bumps and bruises throughout the series, but the back spasms are gone and he said the shoulder felt better Friday morning.

"It always hurts less if you win, but bumps and bruises are part of the game this time of year,'' Wade said. "It's whose will is stronger. There's no point in talking about that. We have to take the fight to them.''