Boston —- Hawks rookie center Al Horford took the news of Kevin Durant winning the NBA Rookie of the Year award in stride.

His coaches and teammates weren't nearly as understanding before Wednesday's Game 5 against Boston in their first-round playoff series.

"It's a travesty and it's not right," Hawks coach Mike Woodson said. "He should have shared it, if not gotten it outright. And I don't want to hear about us not being on TV or anything like that. It doesn't matter. It's what this kid has done for this team."

Durant and Horford both had seasons, statistically, that stand up with the best of all time for first-year players.

Durant had the highest scoring average (20.3) for a rookie since LeBron James averaged 20.9 during his first season, and he won Western Conference rookie of the month honors five times (out of six) this season.

Horford tied for 11th overall in the league in rebounds (9.7), averaged 10.1 points on a playoff team, and was a three-time Eastern Conference rookie of the month.

"You can't walk away from 20 a night," Marvin Williams said. "But the difference to me is that you have one team in the playoffs and the other team [Seattle] watching the playoffs. ... We wouldn't be here without him."

Horford's frontcourt mate Josh Smith is convinced that hype won Durant the award.

"If a guy is the No. 1 pick [Durant was No. 2 and Horford No. 3] people automatically expect him to be rookie of the year," Smith said. "And since Greg Oden got hurt and wasn't out there, people just automatically put Durant in that spot."

Jeff Van Gundy impressed so far

ESPN/ABC analyst Jeff Van Gundy is like most of the basketball viewing public; he's seeing the Hawks up close for the first time.

Van Gundy said he was as surprised as anyone that the Hawks entered Game 5 tied at 2-2 with the top-seeded Celtics.

"Everybody, when you play them in a one-game situation, is very fearful of their overall talent," Van Gundy said. "To me, Josh Smith has such a huge impact on the game and is so disruptive around the basket.

"Al Horford's everything you want in a player —- smart, competitive and loves the game. I've always liked Josh Childress off the bench. And I like [Zaza] Pachulia. I think he's nasty and competitive. And he's much better suited to be a bench player as opposed to someone you count on as a starter.

"But not knowing them, winning just 37 games in the Eastern Conference is more shocking than them being 2-2 in this series."

Coach not focused on job security

Woodson was asked repeatedly about his job status before Wednesday's game and insisted that he's not focused on anything but finishing this series.

"Right now, I'm paid to coach this team," he said. "I'm the coach now and my contract ends the end of June. Then we'll see where we are."