Josh Smith

By Gary Dzen, Boston.com Staff So let me get this straight: Ben Roethlisberger is a tough guy, and Paul Pierce, Josh Smith, and Ray Allen are fakers. Because a quarterback who drops back a few steps and has to jog every five plays is a warrior for playing with an ankle sprain, but basketball players who twist their knees or have bone spurs in their ankle and then have to sprint, jump, and make lateral cuts for 40 minutes are wimps. Just so we're clear.

The Atlanta Hawks have committed to Larry Drew for one more season. The team announced Friday it is exercising its option on the coach's contract for next season. Asked if apprehension comes with the contract not being extended beyond the 2012-13 season, Drew said: "What do you think?" Drew would prefer a longer commitment from the team. "You know, you can look at it one of two ways," Drew said. "Certainly, is it the perfect situation? No. I've had a lot of dialogue with my representative about the situation and at this point we're just going to move forward.

After sitting on the bench in Game 3, watching his team take the Celtics to overtime, watching it unable to finish off Boston, Josh Smith did not sound like a man who wants to do that again. Smith, who missed Friday's game with a left knee injury, said Saturday there is very little that could keep him out of Game 4 Sunday. "I'm probably going to play regardless of how it feels because I know the importance of this game," Smith said. "I know that we have something special on this team.

The losses were a mix of bad shots, poor decision-making, and injuries. It was part typical Atlanta Hawks basketball - too much Joe Johnson isolation, for example - and part bad luck. What had been the best chance for the current Hawks to make a stand in the playoffs and move beyond previous chances ended Thursday night in an 83-80 loss to the Celtics in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference first round. "Obviously it's disappointing that we couldn't be able to do something special," Josh Smith said.

By Gary Dzen, Boston.com Staff Josh Smith is officially out for the Atlanta Hawks tonight, according to coach Larry Drew. Marvin Williams will take Smith's place in the starting lineup. Smith suffered a strained tendon in his left knee in the fourth quarter of Game 2 of the series on Tuesday.

ATLANTA - Was he serious? I'm not knocking it. There was something quite refreshing about seeing a 21st-century NBA player of stature sitting down for his postgame media session wearing a beige sweater, a bow tie, and a pair of those Clark Kent-ish glasses that I hear are all the rage. I guess it was the tie that knocked me out. Satch Sanders would have been proud. It just wasn't what I expected from Josh Smith. Maybe he lost a bet. Or maybe he has matured. The raw talent was always there.

The story of the first round of the playoffs for the Hawks has been a lack of big men. No Al Horford. No Zaza Pachulia. No Josh Smith, at least at the end of Game 2 and all of Game 3. That changed Sunday night, with the Hawks welcoming back Horford and Smith, though Pachulia remained out because of bone chips in his foot. But it didn't do as much good for Atlanta as it had hoped, with the Celtics routing the Hawks, 101-79, in Game 4 at TD Garden. There had been a lot of discussion about Smith's availability after he sprained his knee.

After sounding more positive about his injured left knee on Thursday, Josh Smith got to test it out at Friday morning's shootaround at Suffolk University. And the results weren't good. Therefore, the Hawks were without Smith for Game 3 against the Celtics at TD Garden. Smith did say that if his knee improves the way it did between Games 2 and 3, there's a chance he could play Sunday in Game 4. "I felt pretty good until I started exploding up to the basket," Smith said. "That's where the pain really starts to generate, when I become explosive with it. But as far as...

ATLANTA - With the Hawks already missing injured big men Al Horford and Zaza Pachulia, the team eagerly (and fearfully) awaited word Wednesday on the prognosis for power forward Josh Smith's left knee, injured in Game 2. Officially, Smith's MRI revealed a strained tendon in his left knee and he is day to day, but the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Smith has patellar tendinitis with inflammation in the area, making him doubtful for...

Josh Smith scored 19 of his 28 points in the second half for the Atlanta Hawks, who defeated the Sacramento Kings for the eighth straight time with a 106-99 victory Sunday night. Atlanta took the lead for good with a strong third quarter and never trailed again in avoiding a third straight loss. It's the only meeting between the teams this season. DeMarcus Cousins fouled out late in the game but not before tying a season high with 28 and adding 12 rebounds for the Kings, who had their modest two-game winning streak snapped.

The losses were a mix of bad shots, poor decision-making, and injuries. It was part typical Atlanta Hawks basketball - too much Joe Johnson isolation, for example - and part bad luck. What had been the best chance for the current Hawks to make a stand in the playoffs and move beyond previous chances ended Thursday night in an 83-80 loss to the Celtics in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference first round. "Obviously it's disappointing that we couldn't be able to do something special," Josh Smith said.

By Gary Dzen, Boston.com Staff So let me get this straight: Ben Roethlisberger is a tough guy, and Paul Pierce, Josh Smith, and Ray Allen are fakers. Because a quarterback who drops back a few steps and has to jog every five plays is a warrior for playing with an ankle sprain, but basketball players who twist their knees or have bone spurs in their ankle and then have to sprint, jump, and make lateral cuts for 40 minutes are wimps. Just so we're clear.

ATLANTA - The same word keeps coming up: aggressive. Jeff Teague says it. His teammates say it. His coaches say it. To be successful, the Hawks guard needs to be more aggressive, on defense, on offense, everywhere. "He's been aggressive, really aggressive the last month of the season, really," said teammate Marvin Williams. "When he plays like that, I think we're a tough team to beat. He's always pushing the ball. "He's always attacking the basket, trying to make plays for everyone else.

ATLANTA - As a result of losing Games 2, 3, and 4, the Hawks made changes to their lineup for Tuesday's Game 5. Because of Al Horford's torn pectoral muscle, it was a lineup that hadn't been seen in Atlanta since January. But it was one the team turned to for perhaps its last chance at finding answers. Horford was back in as a starter, along with Jeff Teague , Joe Johnson , Marvin Williams , and Josh Smith . This was the lineup the Hawks were supposed to have this season.

John Havlicek against the 76ers. Larry Bird against the Pistons. When Rajon Rondo intercepted a Hawks pass in the final seconds of Game 5, he had a chance to add to the list of memorable Celtics playoff steals. Then he fumbled it away. "I hate that the game ended the way that it ended," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said after Atlanta held on for an 87-86 victory in Game 5 of their first-round playoff series to force a sixth game in Boston on Thursday night. "I thought that Rondo willed us back into the game.

ATLANTA - Asked if he was happy with the number of touches he got in Game 4, Joe Johnson uttered just one word: "No," he said. That was all. Johnson took only eight shots in the 101-79 Game 4 debacle against the Celtics and made just four. That number of attempts was down significantly from the first three games, in which Johnson took 15 shots in Game 1, 17 in Game 2, and 28 in Game 3, the last total without power forward Josh Smith. "I don't think they're doing nothing different defensively on me," Johnson said.

The Atlanta Hawks are running out of players. The team learned Wednesday that forward Josh Smith has a strained tendon in his left knee, perhaps costing the Hawks another key player for their playoff series against the Boston Celtics. Smith is day-to-day and it's not known if he'll be able to go in Game 3 Friday night. While the injury doesn't sound as serious as some feared before he underwent an MRI, it's worth noting that Hawks center Zaza Pachulia is also considered day-to-day because of a sprained left foot — and he hasn't been on the court in nearly three weeks.