AJC > Sports > Hawks > Blog > Archives > 2007 > March > 20
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Shock-free Tuesday
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Shock and outrage is what I expected. Neither showed up after Hawks coach Mike Woodson pulled Josh Smith late in Monday’s game when he was a point shy of the first triple double of his career.
It was a pleasant surprise, for sure. But totally unexpected as well. I was counting on an avalanche of complaints about Woodson ruining the guy’s chances for a milestone. I was so sure that it was coming that I spent time this morning hashing out the pros and cons with several people on my drive from the house to practice.
The bottom line is this: Smith had his chances, and said as much after shooting 4-for-14 from the floor and 1-for-4 from the foul line, including two late misses that, had he made either one of them, would have sealed the triple double. And he blew it. He said as much.
His teammates were more hurt than Smith was about not getting there: “I was so mad. A triple-double, that’s something I dream about. He was so close. He’s the type of player that will get it again. He can dot hat. I’m looking forward to seeing him get tons of those as the years go by,” Josh Childress said.
And he’s right. Smith will have plenty of opportunities. But that didn’t stop people from chatting about it after the game. I can understand not leaving Smith out there to chase it. What if he’d sprained an ankle or sustained a serious knee injury trying to scramble for that final point? Woodson would be cursed today for doing something foolish.
The win was the most important thing Monday (the Hawks snapped a seven-game losing streak to that strange Kings team and got a little payback with their 23-point shellacking after taking an ugly loss at Arco Arena, also without Joe Johnson, earlier this season).
Another side note from Monday’s game that I neglected to mention is that the Hawks officially passed their win total from last season. They have a chance to really put some distance between last season’s mark and this season’s. But they’ll have some serious work to do to accomplish that - starting with the still hot Heat Wednesday night at Philips Arena.
