Josh Smith would probably be the first to tell you that he didn't have a great game on Friday against the Rockets. But he was there at the end when it mattered most, and hit the game-winner with 0.7 seconds left to power the Hawks to their 11th win, tops in the league at this early point in the NBA season.Smith finished with a pretty solid line of nine points, eight rebounds, four blocks, and three assists, but was limited by foul trouble to just 24 minutes of action. In fact, he had played just 30 seconds of the fourth quarter, before being inserted with 34 seconds remaining, and his team clinging to a five-point lead.
After the exceptionally gritty Rockets came from 10 points down with under two minutes remaining to tie it at 103 with five seconds left, Smith was there to clean up Mike Bibby's missed jumper for the win. Video after the jump.
For a team that's often praised for its hard work and mastery of the fundamentals, not boxing out the most athletic player on the court with the game on the line seems like a pretty big thing to forget about. You can't fault Chuck Hayes for coming over to contest Bibby's shot, but once the shot went up, you can absolutely fault him for not putting a body on someone to prevent that game-winning offensive rebound.
Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Close game, wire to wire
it looks that Atlanta is
for real , too early to call
but so far so good.