Joe Johnson and Mike Bibby aren't the only Hawks willing and able to take and make big shots with the game on the line.

They're usually the only two players who Hawks coach Mike Woodson feels comfortable taking such shots, particularly from beyond the 3-point line.

But Woodson had no choice but to watch Josh Smith do exactly that, stroking two deep 3-pointers in overtime to cap the Hawks' 127-120 overtime victory over Toronto on Wednesday night at Philips Arena.

"I've been on him taking three's anyway," Woodson said after his team's fifth straight win, "and he stepped up and made two big ones tonight. So what's that tell you? Coach just needs to shut up, I guess?"

Smith's shots came after Bibby drained a monster shot of his own to cap the Hawks' comeback from a 17-point deficit with a minute to play in the third quarter.

The Hawks got three opportunities to force overtime and made good on the third, when Bibby sank a 3-pointer with half of a second to play to tie the game at 107-107.

The Raptors had what looked like a game-winning layup on a fantastic play from T.J. Ford at the basket, but after he initially counted the basket, lead official Mark Wunderlich overturned the play after watching it repeatedly on replay.

"They ran it perfectly," Smith said. "We were just hoping that it wasn't good. And thank goodness it wasn't."

The Hawks can thank goodness that they had Smith, Bibby and Johnson. All three played huge roles, along with Josh Childress, Marvin Williams and Al Horford, in helping the Hawks (35-40) strengthen their hold on that final Eastern Conference playoff spot. They're now four games ahead of Indiana and New Jersey.

"That was a total team effort, that's all I can say," Woodson said. "Everybody made plays. Bibby hits the three, Smith hits the two big three's. We got a big block from Josh Childress on Ford. We just made plays. The fourth quarter, we were down big, and I thought that was as good a fourth quarter as we've played all year in terms of getting stops when we needed them, and getting key rebounds.

"Then guys just made offensive plays. Bibby and Joe were huge down the stretch."

Johnson finished with a game-high 28 points, 11 assists and seven rebounds. Bibby added 26 points, 12 assists and six rebounds.

But it was Smith and Horford who combined for 12 of the Hawks' 20 points in the overtime. And Smith finished his big night with 24 points, nine rebounds, four assists, two blocks and some clutch crunch-time defense on Raptors All-Star forward Chris Bosh, who matched Smith with 24 points.

And it was Smith, whose 3-point percentage for the season is gruesome (24.4 percent), who didn't think twice about taking those big shots — he made the first with 2:06 to play in overtime giving the Hawks a 114-113 lead and the second with 29.7 seconds to play for a game-sealing 122-118 advantage.

"You never know what that dude is going to do, and that's what makes him so good," Williams said. " Seriously, he has supreme confidence in himself. And if you tell him he can't do something, he'll prove you wrong."