Off-kilter Smith will give LeBron something to think about
ATLANTA -- The promise of a Dwyane Wade-LeBron James matchup in the Eastern Conference semifinals was shattered for good when mild-mannered Joe Johnson drilled a 3-pointer from the left wing Sunday afternoon to give the Hawks a 26-point lead over the Heat.
Johnson walked back toward the huddle for a timeout, and that's about the extent of the showboating you'll see from him.
In Wade's mind, though, it was over much earlier, when Johnson calmly stepped into a 30-foot 3-pointer, in rhythm, over Wade just four minutes into the second quarter. "When you get your star, Joe, to hit a 40-foot 3s," Wade said when it was over -- the game, series, and his year-long basketball journey that began 12 months ago this week when he began training for the 2008 Olympics, "it was going to be one of those nights."
So flummoxed was Wade by the Hawks' 91-78 victory over the Heat in Game 7 that he didn't even realize what time of day it was. But I know what time it is for Wade's good buddy and co-MVP candidate, James.
It's nutcase time.
James and Kobe Bryant, the last two odds-on MVP favorites still standing in the playoffs, have something in common. Both of their second-round opponents have a featured player who is, let's just say, a few ink stains shy of a tattoo. (Or an ink barrel shy of Udonis Haslem's back-tatt picturing the entire state of Florida, which he displayed to the crowd while leaving the court following a flagrant-two and ejection in the fourth quarter.)
• Hawks 91, Heat 78 | Series | Berger: Wade
Kobe has Ron Artest to deal with when the Lakers face the Houston Rockets in the second round beginning Monday night in Los Angeles. LeBron, allow me to introduce you to Josh Smith. He won't be guarding you all the time, but he's still going to make sure you know he's there.
One thing about Josh; you always know he's there.
The upstart Hawks have nothing to lose. Their victory over Miami on Sunday was the franchise's first in the seventh game of a playoff series since the St. Louis Hawks beat the Minneapolis Lakers in 1961, before losing to Boston in the NBA Finals. They have a fractured ownership group, a tepid fan base, a superstar who is a notch below true superstar status in Johnson, and the knowledge that no Hawks team has ever advanced beyond the second round of the playoffs since the franchise has been in Atlanta.
The Hawks' first trip to the second round in a decade is a testament to the organization's faith in coach Mike Woodson, who has almost been fired more than any NBA coach, and to GM Rick Sund, who has brought respectability to a front office that will always have to do more with less.
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| Atlanta's Josh Smith is maddening enough to make Hawks coach Mike Woodson pull his hair out. (Getty Images) |
Hide the women and children -- and that means your woman and children, too, LeBron -- because Smith revealed after the game Sunday that he has no plans to genuflect at the feet of King James. Nor will he have any problem pulling one of those dunk-contest stunts again when the Hawks open their best-of-7 series in Cleveland on Tuesday night.
"Why not?" Smith said in the winning locker room. "Why wouldn't I? I don't care what people think."
Not finished channeling his inner Artest, Smith explained further what his approach will be against LeBron now that the Hawks are finished with his buddy in the No. 3 jersey.
"You can't be scared," Smith said. "You can't give anybody respect on the court. And we've got to play together, play with tenacity and we've got to play hungry."
When I explained that King James seems to command the respect of everyone -- opponents, opposing coaches, and referees alike -- Smith shook his head and said, "You just can't play scared man, bottom line. We know. We know that he's a candidate for the MVP, but we can't let that affect us on how we play him."
Smith and Artest are different in plenty of ways. Smith is a native Atlantan who just made history for his hometown team. Artest is from the projects of Queensbridge, N.Y., who was supposed to have been drafted by his hometown Knicks, but wasn't (see Weis, Frederic). He has made a career of raising a ruckus in Sacramento and Indiana (see Auburn Hills, Palace of) before bringing just the right combination of toughness and antagonism to a Rockets team that also finally has found its way out of the first round.
But they share a swagger and a certain flare for stirring the hornets' nest, even when the queen bee resides there. Do the Hawks have the same chance the Rockets have to create some buzz in the second round? To put it kindly, no. Even Smith acknowledged that LeBron is a whole different cat to defend than Wade because, well, LeBron has people who will make shots when he passes them the ball. Wade doesn't, unless he passes it to himself.
There is a chance, however slim, that Atlanta-Cleveland will be more entertaining than Atlanta-Miami, in which every game was decided by double-digits without a single lead change after the first quarter. If nothing else, it will be entertaining in the same away Josh Smith is entertaining. He'll make his presence felt one way or another.
