NEW YORK — Before Saturday night's come-from-behind victory over the Pistons, I wasn't sensing much love in Dixie, where Josh Smith and Hawks coach Mike Woodson dropped the verbal gloves at halftime of Friday night's seven-point loss to the Bobcats. It was shades of two seasons ago when the coach banished his starting forward to the locker room for questioning a decision to make Tyronn Lue the game-winning (missing) shooter in regulation against the 76ers at Philly.
This time the friction, from what I observed on TV — and later got confirmed — revolved around Smith taking an unsavory long-distance shot near intermission with Atlanta down nine.
How do I know it was an unsavory shot?