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Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Focus on Josh Smith, Shelden Williams vs. Grizzlies
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The starting five is settled, for now. Tyronn Lue, Joe Johnson, Marvin Williams, Josh Smith and Zaza Pachulia will be the first five on the floor tonight against the Grizzlies.
The two guys that bear watching are obviously Williams and Smith. Tonight will be our first live glimpse of how these two young guys play together. Without Pau Gasol (big fella is out with a foot injury), it’ll be hard to gauge what kind of defensive issues the Hawks might have with Smith at power forward. But at least the whole thing will be under the big lights.
If there is a major concern, it’s that Smith will be plagued by early foul trouble because he’s guarding guys who on most nights are going to be bigger than he is. And if his technique isn’t sound (fronting guys in the post and relying on his help rather than playing behind guys and using his athleticism to challenge shots all the time) he’ll spend more time next to Hawks coach Mike Woodson than he wants to.
Making things even more interesting is the way Shelden Williams has been surging. During Tuesday’s scrimmage Williams was a terror, diving for loose balls and banging around the basket like he was back at Cameron Indoor. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of impact he’ll have off the bench tonight as well.
