Peachtree Hoops: Sometimes being good isn't even that exciting, but it is fun.

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At some point, you run out of superlatives about Josh Smith. So how about this one. He had 22 points, 4 steals, 4 blocks, 10 rebounds, and 1 assist, and it seemed completely ordinary. I mean it was a good night, but it was Josh Smith where effort and opportunity meet. He is that good that it can be that simple.

Joe Johnson, the Battier killer

All that talk about Battier and how he knows spots and tendencies, well I think Joe does things so slow that kind of research doesn't even matter. After one dribble I can tell you what Joe is going to do and it does not even matter. You are still probably going to need help defense.

And can we all just say a 16 shot Joe Johnson is the kind of Joe Johnson we need.

Where cooler heads prevail

The Hawks shot 19 free throws, and three of those were on technicals. In light of Houston's 30, it makes the win even more impressive. And Atlanta was actually driving the ball a fair amount. Some of that had to do with good interior defense, some of it was bad calls, but if I can type word after word about how time after time the Hawks lost their focus by complaining about things that don't matter, I should at least type "job well done" when they dominated a team when everything wasn't going their well. And it was on the road.... in Houston. Who is this team?

Victory Bullets

• Marvin's baby hook is not falling like it did last year, but I still it.
• Jeff Teague needs to be playing. You can talk in practice all you want about defending the in bounds pass and overplaying the three like Jeff did to open the second quarter, but I guarantee you he has it figured it out now. Woody called the timeout, destroyed Teague, and kept him in. That is coaching. Thank you.
  
• Even with Joe's jumper on, Houston kept playing off him. It was weird and lovely.
  
• In the first quarter, Houston pulled an Atlanta, shooting bunches of jump shots. It is as ugly rooting for it as it is rooting against it.
• Then again Brooks hit two three, and it starts to look great. This really is the Hawks!
• Battle of the sixth man? No one earned it, but the not goes to Jamal Crawford.
• How annoying is Chase Budinger?
• Al Horford almost had a double double in 28 minutes.
  
• Stats, Zaza doesn't care about your damn stats. I will always respect the full court, end of quarter heave at the expense of one's shooting percentage. Then again, I will always respect Zaza. So this may be a chicken/egg situation.
• Houston needs to learn to hide Chase Budinger on defense much, much better.
• Well, I don't miss David Anderson.
  
• Very few bad things happen when Jamal Crawford drives the ball.
  

Go Hawks!

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