"Joe Johnson is the Hawks' four-time All-Star, their highest-paid player and the one guy on the roster who spoke openly the other day about feeling he needed to prove himself as one of the game's elite players by carrying his team in crucial moments in these playoffs, if necessary.

All of that is accurate. But it doesn't diminish the impact Josh Smith can have on a team. We saw again why Tuesday night.

He is forever the Hawks' X-factor because so few can do what he does, which, by the way, is everything. The only comparable might be a guy named LeBron.

As Al Horford said when asked about key performers for the Hawks in this postseason, "Joe is one of those players who lives for the big moment - he's our go-to guy. But I think Josh is the biggest key for us. He gets everybody going. He makes things happen. When he's rebounding the ball, scoring the ball, he's the guy who makes us go."

During the day, it was announced that Smith had finished second in voting as the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year, behind only Dwight Howard, his close friend going back to pre-school. (Imagine the Nerf hoop battles at that school.)"