The fallout from Friday night's emotionally charged Atlanta-New York basketball game continues.
On Sunday, Hawks forward Josh Smith was fined $25,000 for making an obscene gesture near the end of the Hawks' 111-102 victory over the Knicks. After connecting on a crucial 3-pointer with just under four minutes to play, Smith grabbed his crotch.
Smith's fine came the day after Atlanta forward Marvin Williams was suspended for two games by the NBA for throwing a punch later in the same game. With 43.7 seconds left, Williams and New York's Shawne Williams exchanged shoves, drew fighting fouls and were ejected. The Knicks' Williams claimed he was hit in the back of the head.
The Hawks' Williams, who sat out against Dallas on Saturday night, has one more game remaining in his suspension without pay, which will cost him about $163,700, or 1/41st of his annual salary.
Shot selection undesirable
Coach Larry Drew cautioned against a snowball effect after the Hawks lost to Milwaukee on Wednesday night with poor shot selection in the fourth quarter the culprit. However, after the Hawks similarly fell to Dallas on Saturday night after shooting 26.7 percent in the fourth quarter, Drew was less concerned.
"Through the course of the season, as long as our seasons are, as many games as we play, it's going to happen," said Drew of the fourth-quarter sloppiness. "It won't be the last time. We just have to hopefully, when we get in these type situations, learn to push through them."
While the Hawks lost both games by giving up leads entering the fourth quarter, it bears mention that they're 25-3 when leading after three quarters. However, they have been outscored in the fourth quarter in five of the past six games, three times by 12 or more points. In half of the Hawks' 18 losses this season, they've failed to score 20 points in the fourth quarter.
"When you don’t have good shot selection, when you're not sharp in running your sets, as I told the guys, sometimes a bad shot is just as bad as a turnover," Drew said.
What was particularly evident in the losses to Milwaukee and Dallas was the poor choice of shots and a lack of ball movement. Guard Joe Johnson called the fourth quarter in Dallas, in which they surrendered a 14-1 run to open the period, a carbon copy of the Milwaukee debacle.
"We had total control of the game and then in the fourth it just got out of hand," he said.
Etc.
This season, the Hawks are 11-12 when Al Horford takes 12 or fewer shots, and 18-5 when he takes 13 or more. In the Hawks' losses to Milwaukee and Dallas, Horford took a total of 18 shots, four of them in the fourth quarter, despite having the fifth-highest shooting percentage in the NBA after Saturday's games (57.0). … The Hawks did not practice on Sunday. They are scheduled to practice on Monday and Tuesday before playing at home on Wednesday night against the Toronto Raptors. Drew said he wanted to devote time, in particular, to a few different defensive coverages.
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